Did I Destroy Your Ears?

Free Blood “Quick and Painful”

At their core, Free Blood’s have the classic DFA sound: Jagged post-punk bass riffs and stark disco beats, polished up just enough to fit comfortably in the proximity of electro and house music, but rough enough to maintain a neurotic, edgy tone and sonic grit. That’s a solid foundation, but as we’ve learned from the horde of DFA pretenders from the earlier half of this decade, it’s not enough to carry a song, much less a band. Free Blood flood their songs with hooks and textural detail, but even at their busiest moments, the compositions feel loose and lean. “Quick and Painful” builds upon its central rhythmic tension with the flirty sexual tension of its male and female vocals, and contrasts bursts of abrasive electronic noise with a dramatic cello motif that cuts diagonally through the track. The breakdown is particularly interesting — the central groove cuts out, the song shifts briefly into something resembling an alt-rock ballad with some odd chatter in the background before mutating back to its funk riff for the finale.

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Heartsrevolution “Switchblade”

“Switchblade” is a good title for this song, at least in the sense that its rapid attack of trebly computer-error sounds is like the musical equivalent of getting stabbed repeatedly in the ear drum with tiny daggers. Okay, that may not seem like a recommendation, but I mean it in the best possible way — the track feels freakishly urgent and alert, as if it were made to conflate the pleasure of dancing with the bug-eyed panic of a crisis.

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