The uproariously ravey vibe of “Belair” had me sold. It’s the title track of Lorenz Rhode’s new EP on Dirt Crew and exists in a strange pocket of air in this overheated era – both out-of-time and just-in-time. The submerged organ groove is just wicked as fuck: you can ride a crowd really hard and really far with this and the heavy bass keeps them grounded no matter how high you go.
Strip Steve turns “On Top” into a drill line frenzy – steely percussion, vocals firing like tracer shots. I found it difficult to approach the proper angle to mix into this – the intro is an ear-splitting riot from the start and where do you drop the needle into that? There’s a weird mellow break where the drums drop out at 2:50 and breaks the song into two halves – from this oasis for the mix-shy it’s almost like a different but related remix to the end. And Tensnake delivers a dose of dreamy, house-y ’90s pop with a remix of “And I Said.”
As I’ve gotten older (and maybe sometimes wiser) I find I can take a track or two from most records and leave the rest. Others just have too much connective tissue, a thread that holds it all together amidst the most wild deviations. This EP of fun but left-field funk is one of the latter.
Lorenz Rhode: Belair EP / Dirt Crew
A1. Lorenz Rhode: Belair
A2. Lorenz Rhode: Jubilee
B1. Lorenz Rhode: On Top (Strip Steve Remix)
B2. Lorenz Rhode: And I Said (Tensnake Remix)
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