DJ Bone, Circus World EP

[Subject Detroit]


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What sets apart DJ Bone and, indeed, his label Subject Detroit, from the pack is the rawness and energy coursing through their numerous releases. In “No Sleep (True To Da Roots),” Bone’s jaw-dropping EP for Sect Records, this was embodied in the hands-on method with which the tracks were arranged, each gridless rhythm and slight imperfection reminding listeners that humans, not machines, were in charge. His LWE podcast, assembled largely from the Subject catalog, found the unpolished aesthetic equally charming on a broader scale. So it should come as little surprise that “Circus World EP,” one of DJ Bone’s four Subject releases so far this year, makes good with a similar approach to pumping techno.

A close cousin to “Higher” from the aforementioned “No Sleep,” “Circus World” layers a familiar galloping synth progression atop widely reverberating percussion (as if recorded in an empty factory), churning with mechanical energy. DJ Bone’s weary and distorted tenor, which laments artists who “replicate” and a “circus world” with no chance of escape, contrasts with unrelenting progressions and the metallic upstroke intensifying with each passing measure. Only the hope that music and dancing offer some reprieve from everyday life keeps the existential dread at bay; the instrumental mix is perhaps a bit friendlier to fragile minds. But for all the trepidation of side A, “One More Tune” offers a perfect tonic on the flipside, based heavily upon a sample of a particularly determined Edinburgh crowd who refused to leave the dance floor. Its looped whistles and chants, played against a swooning shade of synth pads and flanged percussion, embody the sort of atmosphere DJs and dancers alike crave from a night out. Musically unguarded and unabashedly emotional, the “Circus World EP” proves again why DJ Bone should be anything but one of Detroit’s best kept secrets.

james kartsaklis  on October 27, 2008 at 5:50 PM

dude wins every time he drops a record.

Trackbacks

Little White Earbuds » Little White Earbuds October Charts  on November 6, 2008 at 9:12 PM

[…] Me (I Can’t)” [Cadenza] (buy) 08. John Roberts, “Hesitate” [Dial] (buy) 09. DJ Bone, “One More Tune” [Subject Detroit] (buy) 10. Luke Hess, “Platte” [Echocord Colour] […]

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