Chicago noise corps called Bootleg Contraband collect nine energizing tracks for a new album. I/O grows, they say, “from the roots of house music” and then it “branches out into techno, electro, latin and minimal.” And the stems reach a few other places in between.
On track one you will hear this — “Need A Beat” has a classic tech vibe with sampled “commentary” from those sick type of voices found on classic Chicago records like, for example, “Radikal Bitch” by Armando. But this is no throwback LP: the sound of Bootleg Contraband is modern but eccentric and eclectic, like a 1968 Pontiac Firebird equipped with after market DeLorean gull wings, LED lights on the chassis and airbrushed graphics on the hood.
“Tribalism” is recognizable modern techno infiltrated by a Latin swing, “Take Me Higher” is electro with a dirty grime. “Ohne Titel” means “untitled” in German and is surely a reference to a certain techno-meets-Kraftwerk influence. Found sound brings you into the studio with Bootleg Contraband; on “Children At Play” a mic gets dropped out the window and kids’ voices drown out the track’s hypnotic beats and glitches, and then they adapt and assimilate them. “Radio Chilo” is a pumping track resembling classic Chicago House, an all-city sound grinding up I-94 to Lower Wacker and shooting through the Loop to the North Side.
Bootleg Contraband: I/O (Section Eight Music / Digital)
1. Bootleg Contraband: Need A Beat (05:34)
2. Bootleg Contraband: Tribalism (04:42)
3. Bootleg Contraband: Take Me Higher (04:58)
4. Bootleg Contraband: Ohne Titel (06:03)
5. Bootleg Contraband: Window Pane (05:24)
6. Bootleg Contraband: Dancefloor Amnesia (07:34)
7. Bootleg Contraband: Children At Play (03:45)
8. Bootleg Contraband: Radio Chilo (04:12)
9. Bootleg Contraband: You (07:16)
⚪️ Disclosure Statement: This record was submitted as a promo; the label is also an advertiser with 5 Mag. No special consideration was granted: the promo was passed to our staff without any information or instructions and OCK wrote this review.
