Distal - Boss of the South

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  • Distal is one of the most promising figures to hold up when talking about everything-but-the-kitchen-sink "bass music." "Boss of the South," to put it mildly, epitomizes this. The Atlanta producer's debut on UK label Grizzly is packed to the brim with wild percussion riding crests of imperceptible waves, saturated with vocal samples, and low-end quakes worthy of DMZ. That already sounds chaotic, but Distal also obsessively plays with the track's structure, pulling it apart and into new shapes almost as quickly as its drums skitter across the surface. It makes the five minutes feel like twelve (in a good way). "Coke Bottle," then, couldn't help but seem tame in comparison, though it's certainly no less active: the same frantic, layered drum lines and angry chipmunk vocals are assuaged by gentle strings and later uprising hoovers, floating on the same frenzied foundation of bassy fidget as "Boss." The EP comes packed with a load of remixes, the best being label head Sinden's rework of "Boss of the South," where he refigures the heart of the tune into a sloping house rhythm and uses Distal's quirky sound effects as accents rather than the focus. Capracara takes a similarly laidback but less successful approach, turning the staccato into the staid, while Houston-based Wheez-ie gets two footworky goes at "Coke Bottle." The remixes on a single as strong as "Boss of the South" aren't really necessary, though, because when you're already way ahead of everyone else, it's hard to think of others' contributions as anything but irrelevant.
  • Tracklist
      01. Boss of the South 02. Coke Bottle 03. Boss of the South (Sinden Remix) 04. Boss of the South (Capracara's South Of Heaven Remix) 05. Coke Bottle (Wheez-ie Remix 1) 06. Coke Bottle (Wheez-ie Remix 2)
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