The hidden leather glove of G.O.O.D. music returns with a banger so absolute that Cyhi was sentenced to six hours in the dungeon upon a cursory dismissal of “Chimes.” I expected trap to be deader than DeLoreans by now, but it’s basically subsumed dubstep as the drug of choice by those who shouldn’t be trusted with drugs. Of course, any halfway decent producer needs to evolve, lest their style get left in the theoretical Boomkat bargain bin where many of the 07 dubstep detonators currently molder.
Dance music is in a strange place where Todd Edwards and Soul 2 Soul reworks can control the Hot 100. Daft Punk is the most popular group with a synthesizer despite playing music that your father and grandfather could do the hustle to. Unless you’re into instrumental grime (see also: Son Raw-core), house revival or club-you-like-a-baby-seal-step, your options are limited. This year has given us a very good Todd Terje album and Kassem Mosse, but those seem most suited to headphone immersion. Even Low End Theory producers have splintered away from straight beats to explore the genres that originally formed them. Maybe this is what makes “Chimes” so effective. The Glasgow native and DMC champ has always been one of the most impacted by American styles and you can hear them all over setlist staple, “Chimes.”
The massive brass horn fills come straight from the “Down Bottom” school of production. The triplicate trap hi-hats are mostly spared. You can almost hear the minimalist one-hand keyboard solo approach of Mustard applied to cavernous lunar warehouse parties. This isn’t much different than what Joker and Guido were doing in 2008-09, but it feels like the logical extension. It has bounce but it doesn’t bludgeon. It has groove but it doesn’t force-foot you the 4/4. It’s ultimately the sequel to TNGHT that you’d hoped for. But instead of reaching for “Higher Ground,” it stays low and keeps firing.
