RA Reviews: dBridge / Loxy & Resound - Average Echo / Heritage on Convex Industries (Single)

On his side of this split with Loxy & Resound, dBridge's music is reduced and paced to perfection. He makes it sound easy, and it most definitely isn't. "Average Echo" is a dead-set lurker that sounds like it's swaggering along at a comfortable clip, but when placed next to a busier tune, it's traveling at warp speed. Small monitors and earbuds might make the track seem more slight—the sub sits at a bowel-bumping frequency that demands proper sound, or at least a decent pair of cans. All eyes are on the dry kick-and-snare combo, but field recordings and a litany of spatial punctuation points are key to dBridge's expert control of tension. The atmosphere is somehow taut and relaxed at the same time, taking you completely off-guard when a suave pad enters deep into the back quarter.

Loxy & Resound's cut is quite a change, considering it starts with Arthur Russell floating around a crystal palace and heralds chiming in on the horns. Then, with a burst of white noise, a flurry of breaks and a backspin, we're plunged into murderous territory—it's the sort of drop that'll have dancers drawing their proverbial pistols. Masculine grunts and sharpened sound design make for a deadly vibe, but when we're suddenly thrown back into the original angelic atmosphere, the contrast is nothing if not stark. "Heritage" is a fine track taken in isolation, and is more adventurous than its counterpart, but "Average Echo" is in a league of its own.