31st May 11
RECOMMENDED: Redinho – Edge Off [Numbers]
Posted in Reviews
The debut Redinho EP on Numbers was rough and ragtag, which makes sense considering that Bare Blips was actually the demo tape that the former DJ Red sent to the Scottish conglomerate. Jumpy and indecisive, it nevertheless exhibited Redinho as a producer who could capably navigate the fields of hip-hop, dubstep, and less definable styles and provide convincing takes on each. Redinho’s penchant for metamorphosis survives the translation into full-fledged songs, and his second Numbers EP, Edge Off is not only an improvement but a formidable entry into the market for a producer whose hyper-lucid tendencies lend themselves well to any style of dance music he can throw himself at.
All four tracks on em>Edge Off are greased up with a little hot buttered soul, a warm and gooey sensation missing from the cold machinations of Bare Blips. ‘Edge Off’ seems to crib a little from the decade-spanning funk pastiche of Onra’s excellent Long Distance album, sped up with Redinho’s synth sputters and screeching to a halt in gleefully cartoonish animation. Vocoder vocals paint a winding melody as lithe and indelible as any good synth line while twinkling chords glitz up the chorus, and the whole thing is a confidently synthesized take on Minneapolis-funk-via-italo-via-bass music and nowhere near as watered-down or impotent as I just made that sound.
The other three tracks are less functional and more beat-oriented, starting with the queasy histrionics of ‘Slap’ where slapback bass riffs are thrown in a food processor and put on MAX. It’s a bit of ultra-focused jamming that the word ‘twitchy’ doesn’t even begin to describe and that’s not even mentioning the rude metallic chords that force their way in, bringing the track weirdly close to UK bassline house. Emerging from a frothy boil of mangled bleeps, ‘Power Look’ is a grimey arpeggio workout, wringing every last ounce of strangled life out of its endlessly repeated motif, while ‘Whips’ goes one further on the grime tip. So far that it falls right off the other end in fact, a writhing, clanging wreck built from the resonant sounds of chrome-on-chrome, a strange and unfriendly palette that nonetheless works as well as anything else on Redinho’s mightily impressive second EP. While the release positions him in a dayglo camp of producers like Hudson Mohawke, Onra, and Krystal Klear, Redinho manages to hold his own with his amphetamine-riddled frenetic freakouts.
Words: Andrew Ryce // Out: Now
You can catch Redinho playing live when SR takes over fabric’s Room Three on 1st July.
