B1 Frost
Hold on to your sunhats, campers, because summer is here in the form of two enormous tunes from Andomat 3000 and Jan.
The duo announced their recorded debut last fall with the track "Entr'acte Music" on Cadenza 12, a split single with Pikaya. After October's Selfmade EP for the 9 Volt label, they return to Cadenza Records with a double A-side that's got open air and ocean spray written all over it.
From its opening horn stabs and rolling, tympani-like toms, "L Delay" is all about the drama-but at the same time, its skipping hi- hats and ringing bells suggest a carefree spirit and a supreme lightness of touch. Talk about a duality: a cloak of reverb sucks the track perennially towards the dark side, but from the gleeful syncopations to the cheekily sampled live instruments, everything else opens up to the light like a morning yoga position. There's no funny business here, just tight rhythms and emphatic phrases that command bodies to move. It's a monster of a track, but it must be of the Loch Ness variety, because you'll never see it coming.
On the flip, "Frost"-haunted by the same high, lonesome string note as "L delay"- might be even more energetic, if that's possible. The high end has been smoothed down, and some of the rough-hewn Chicago edge of its companion tune sanded smooth, but its crazily syncopated standup bass line and distant, answering keyboards is all muscle, tensed and ready to explode. Spacious drum tracks clear the floor for flashes of tambourine and handclaps so dry you can taste the salt on'em. Again, no nonsense is the name of the game: just raw, unadulterated funk with an ear for playful rhythms and limber moves. Both tracks, a tidy eight and seven minutes apiece, cry out for active mixing, but that's easier said than done: packed with clever drops and an unerring sense of flow, they damn near command you to let them play out in their entirety. Listen to believe!
