ALWAYS EVERYTHING

LOOPS HAUNT // IMPACT OMNIHAMMER

Black Acre

In the increasingly bloated scene of postdillawonkyglitchhopLAglasgow beat bullshit, strong releases are becoming a rare and cherished commodity. For every consistent producer there seems to be 10 talentless fuckers who’ve switched off the quantise and smeared dots all over beatgrids without rhyme or reason. Its all part of a disappointing trend of uninspired people desiring to mimic “high concept” art, extracting the simplest element of it, applying it to some substanceless fluff and assuming the result is somehow justified as artistic purely through (copied) method. Witness the same thing happen with increasing frequency in the lo fi scene. Interlopers ignoring the exploratory sonic potential, the warm, intimate aesthetic and (most importantly) the songs to instead head straight to the mix: If we fuck that up its instantly hypnagogic! Instantly conceptual! Instantly ARTISTIC.

Now you might think this extended, masturbatory soapboxing might be leading into some heavy critique of Loops Haunt but the Glaswegian is quite anomolous: Loops Haunt is one of those beatmakers that genuinely has something to add to the dialogue. Joining what’s becoming a very impressive slew of releases from Black Acre (See: Fantastic Mr Fox - Sketches, Blue Daisy - Strings Detached), Loops Haunt injects some swagger into Autechre’s cold mainframe with a lollopping industrial beat that masters the falling-over-itself aesthetic of Dilla & his compatriots by recognising that loose beats were always anchored with groove. Joplin tones down the bass heaviness on a robo-Madlib tip that augments the weed haze of Otis Jackson’s beats with cybernetic parts: It isn’t difficult to visualise it with a Quasimoto vocal. Strong stuff for a debut release, don’t sleep because when this is gone, its gone.