Fresh off the long awaited “Crucial EP“, Crucial Recordings again enlists Samba alongside Germany’s Bukez Finezt as well as label boss Sleeper for remix duties on perennial new school favourite “Malignant” as well as summoning a VIP for “Un”. The results, as per most Crucial Recordings releases, are dark and claustrophobic with overtures towards American rap beat structures while incorporating musique concrète and Radiophonic DNA to be birthed in an artificial growth tank out in an underground secret-ops R&D lab out in the Arizonian desert.
Without rehashing what has already be written on the subject, Samba’s original version of “Malignant” fuses extended guitar techniques and other sound design elements with a jittery beat that sounds trap-influenced but isn’t exactly one way or another about it and could easily pass as the music in a trailer for a new indie-slasher flick. Meanwhile, Bukez Finezt’s remix adds a different kinda swing to “Malignant” with ever-present triplet hi-hats while twisting the more abstract sonic DNA into something more like a slightly off-kilter funk powered mech than Samba’s Atlanta infused Frankenstein.
Whereas Bukez’s version plays it funky, Sleeper’s flip goes off the deep end. While the signature aesthetic data is still present, Sleeper refits the beat with jazzy brush-work and into a more tried and true halfstep stomp while warping the Radiophonics beyond recognition into something surprisingly more sinister; revealing the cracks in the foundation via junglist time-stretching, splicing more ethereal voices into the mix, detuning the melody, and illegally dumping potent Black Ark psychedelia into the mix for an altogether more psychotropic experience.
For the VIP of “Un” Samba retrofits the beat structure towards more trap and Atlanta styled rap rhythmic frameworks while further developing the melody in a fashion similar to Peverelist’s anthemic “Roll with the Punches”, warping it until it becomes an ouroboros of a leit-motif where the beginning is in the end. Is it wrong for me to say I secretly wish that Migos would freestyle over this?
CRUCIAL015 is out now and available from Unearthed Sounds, Redeye, White Peach, Boomkat, Intense Records and the Crucial Recordings Store.
