Sach O listens to Hum & Buzz when he rolls.
Ikonika’s Contact Love Want Have is still in rotation, a full length with definitive staying power whose shiny textures and laser synth lines go in perfect tandem with the spring air. A bridge between her earlier Dubstep-influenced experimentation and new all-post-everything sound, it’s the kind of statement worth revisiting if the new music grind is wearing you down and you want something familiar yet altogether alien to listen to. Since the LP’s release, she’s tirelessly been in the lab with a pen and a pad trying to get her own damn label off and the effort seems to have paid dividends with a fuego record by longtime collaborator Optimum, a man who shares his moniker with my pharmacy’s savings program but who nonetheless is worthy of attention.
(Side note: anyone else ever notice that Hyperdub’s roster sounds like a long-lost Marvel Superhero team? Kode 9, The Space Ape, Burial, Ikonika, The Bug, Darkstar, Terror Danjah…set them in post-apocalyptic London and you’ve got a comic.)
Splicing Juke, Techno, Electro, Dubstep and God knows what else into a heady stew of 808s (though very little heartbreak), A-side “Light Year” could soundtrack an anime chase scene and makes perfect sense for a post-Nightslugs world. It’s DS10 on the flip where the real magic happens though: like the boss theme to your favorite arcade game, it’s dark, menacing and more than a little freaky, a good reminder that this stuff is always better with a little evil thrown in. Appropriately, the bass line both hums and buzzes, an admirable effort in conforming to label nomenclature. I rarely use this space to recommend singles you have to purchase with actual money, but if you were to do so, I suggest this one.
Purchase:
MP3: Optimum – Light Year/DS10 @ Boomkat
HBR002 Preview by Hum + Buzz
