Anthony Parasole & Phil Moffa - Atlantic Ave EP

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  • I don't know Brooklyn well enough to tell you much about Atlantic Avenue, but from the sound of this new single, it sure seems like an intimidating strip. "Atlantic Ave" is the second record on Parasole's label, The Corner, and it's even murkier than DJ Qu's chiaroscuro "Times Like This," from the inaugural release. Even coming from a scene that prizes linear development and shadowy atmospheres, "Atlantic Ave" is something else, with just a monotone bass hum—bulbous, all encompassing, with no discernable attack or release—and a bare-bones kick/hi-hat pattern to ground it; the drama is all in the way that the two musicians manipulate those sounds in the depths of their effects and mixing desk. Delayed hi-hats gradually build up into careening, off-beat patterns, and feedback in the signal chain swells until the whole thing rings like an endless thunderclap, at times overwhelming the beat itself. (Moffa's Butcha Sound Studios is all analog, and it sounds like it.) On "Atlantic Ave Retake," they do it again, this time with ringing cymbals, and it sounds even more apocalyptic. Never formless, however: It can be ugly, and it can be mean, but the squall always feels like it's going somewhere. "Ocean Bottom" is the most abstracted of the three versions; Vainqueur comes to mind, but in place of their crystalline clarity, there's only an overwhelming throb that narrows, briefly, to an industrial squeal. It sounds for all the world like standing in the parking lot outside Ben Frost's show at Unsound recently, where Krakow's metal-roofed Engineering Museum seemed to turn, briefly, into the biggest, clangingest bass-bin in the world. Now you can harness that kind of energy inside the club.
  • Tracklist
      A Atlantic Ave B1 Atlantic Ave Retake B2 Ocean Bottom
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