If you set a neo-noir film in Tokyo and wire it up to a UK Garage soundtrack, it might sound like this. I Clap on One and Three is a new EP on Brombért Records from Freudenthaler, whose 2023 Bar Rescue EP on the same label was one of my favorite records of the year.
This time Freudenthaler is high on something different. I Clap on One and Three is a conceptual EP, it seems to tell a story though in such a fragmented way that the story is mostly your own. The sound — it’s something like UK Garage hit with a stiff dose of hip hop, which probably means something like “bass music” in the modern context. Grant Nelson, Rick Wade and DJ Krush pass beats back and forth while watching Kurosawa’s High And Low on an infinite loop.
“Shibuya Detective” leads with chopped up drums and twinkling piano keys lifted from dusty Blue Note gems scored from a second-hand shop. Reverb’d samples come out of nowhere, bounce around for awhile like a ricochet and vanish, with grooves tunneling beneath hyped-up and diced-up vocal clips. The bass here and everywhere is that wobbly, subterranean monster bass that can break through a shitty FM signal to knock people off their heads. “Asbestos II” is another rager, but “Pineapple Flavor” is my favorite track here, I think: broken beat with moody synths and a sax racing up and down in diagonal lines. Available digitally and allegedly in a 100 count vinyl release, though “Pineapple Flavor” is a digital only bonus track.
⚪️ I Clap on One and Three Tracklisting
Freudenthaler: I Clap on One and Three EP (Brombért Records / 12" Vinyl + Digital)
A1 Shibuya Detective (04:53)
A2 Telephone (04:46)
B1 Walkway (04:13)
B2 Asbestos (04:32)
⚪️ Disclosure Statement
This record was submitted as a promo.
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