- "Eco-grime"'s breakout star returns with four cutting-edge tunes.
- If eco-grime has a breakout star, it's Tropical Interface, who first caught my ear in 2017 with what I called "a style of experimental club music that felt harder, more agile and more dynamic than most." Eco-grime is now thriving, as other producers, like Forces, take things to even more challenging extremes. There's no obvious ecological concept or theme associated with Tropical Interface's Signature // Food Chain. Instead, the label describes the tracks as "a pain to mix for DJs." But for anyone brave enough to try, these four tunes—fidgety, explosive and surprisingly melodic—would stand out.
Tropical Interface tagged the EP as "nu skool breakcore," which should give you an idea of its ferocity. "Food Chain" is the hardest track, a wall of scrambled breaks that dips into gabber and trance, with drum hits that land with a splash. Based around a swung house beat, "451 [+1/4]" features a rambling vocoder that sounds like a mush-mouthed robot, while "Signature" has a wiggly, pitch-bent lead that calls back to '90s G-funk.
The highlight is "Reborn (A)," one of Tropical Interface's most accomplished tracks. It has the chaos we've come to expect, with wild drums that occasionally fall into jackhammer patterns. It's nimble, jumping between ideas like someone doing parkour. There's also a catchy chord progression that tumbles alongside the drum, the kind of hook that elevates Tropical Interface's sound above mere complexity. It's mind-bending music you can hum along to.
Tracklist01. Reborn (A)
02. Signature
03. 451 [+1/4]
04. Food Chain