- The First Lady of Beatdown continues her run of form for this, her second EP of 2010, and her first for the quietly fascinating Untitled & After imprint. Akua Marcelle Grant's production is luscious and deep in ways that contemporary deep house has no interest in approximating: Furious washes of sound envelop just about everything, including the achingly slow beat on "Luv Hate Us." Grant's voice swirls around in such a way that you can hardly understand her. That's OK: This track is all about falling in love, and reason (as we all know) often goes by the wayside when you're dealing with such matters.
Things are just as deliriously strange on "Another Man (You're On the DL II)," which sees Grant playing with her voice in the same way that she did on First Lady of Beatdown EP, looping, twisting, tilting. In the same way that someone will repeat a word or a phrase until it loses its meaning, Grant loops "I'm so sorry" until all you hear is the grain of her voice and a malfunctioning synth. It's confusing as hell, and it might not work on the dance floor, but it sounds like nothing else around right now. And that is very much a rarity.
Tracklist 01. Luv Hate Us
02. Another Man (You're On The DL II)