Marvelous Fantabulous

µ-Ziq “4am”

“4am” sounds like it is haunted by the ghost of some half-remembered 80s pop song. Mike Paradinas gives us bits of vocal and keyboards that sound like another song bleeding through his own more modern composition, a bit like radio station signals overlapping. Or maybe it’s more like how beautiful vegetation can grow around broken machinery or architecture, something lovely merging with the form of some busted thing.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Skrillex featuring Missy Elliott and Mr Oizo “RATATA”

I love Skrillex for his energy and because his aesthetic is basically the music equivalent of dousing everything in hot sauce. “RATATA” spins an entirely new song out of a memorable bit of Missy Elliott’s classic “Work It,” which she flips into more of a dancehall toasting vibe to suit Skrillex’s frantic beat. Elliott isn’t a stranger to this kind of tempo but she sounds ferocious and unleashed by Skrillex’s track, like she’s just trying to match his enthusiasm level.

Buy it from Amazon.

Cloonee “Badman Sound”

“Badman Sound” is an absolute beast of a track, a mutant bass house/dancehall hybrid built to push a room into frenzy mode. After listening to this many times over I realized my favorite bits were the drum parts that deviated from the thump – a drum fill that sounds like it’s yanked out of a rock record, and a snare build that sounds like 500 drumlines in unison.

Buy it from Beatport.