Various - SND.PE Volume 2: Crossover Series

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  • For four years, Sound Pellegrino has been mining dance music's crossover spaces for floor-ready gold. Bridging bass music and house before it seemed like a natural thing to do, their discography and excellent podcast series is full of revelations. True to form, the goal of Sound Pellegrino's second compilation is to fight against the idea of "micro-genres," instead proving that different styles can coexist just fine. Each track on SND.PE Volume 2: Crossover Series pairs two unlikely collaborators, and with a tracklist that includes Dutch producer Dexter working with footwork progenitor Gant-Man, you know you're in for something different even before you press play. Very few of the artists do what you'd expect them to on SND.PE Volume 2. Helix and Hrdvsion turn in the delicate "Gmail," which drowns its beat in melancholy. "Dream Incubation," a track from Ikonika and the Japanese band Crystal, is like an '80s pop ballad blown to smithereens and then rebuilt into a house tune. Jean Nipon goes one-on-one with Crackboy for "Ligne Onze," an imitation of early Detroit techno. But best of all is Gant-Man and Dexter's "Ur Booty Soft." An irresistibly smooth ride, it sands the edges off ghettotech to create something curvaceous and aerodynamic. When the collaborations do align with expectations, it's hardly a bad thing—L-Vis 1990 and Sinjin Hawke's futuristic "The Pit" sounds exactly as four-dimensional as you'd hope. In keeping with the label's mission, SND.PE Volume 2 presents a form of dance music in which there are no rules. Teki Latex and Eero Johannes offer up the hilarious "Things That I Do," which includes lines like "caress your back with one hand and check my phone with the other." Six tracks later, we've got Truncate and TWR72's "Frame," an intricate techno tool that barely looks up from its insistent groove. It might not make sense on paper, but something about Pellegrino's brash and open-minded approach just works, and there's not really a moment on the compilation that isn't in some way notable or surprising. Sound Pellegrino have been breaking the divide between house and bass music since 2010, and SND.PE 2 is their biggest success yet.
  • Tracklist
      01. Matthias Zimmermann & Scntst - Tommy 02. Crystal & Ikonika - Dream Incubation 03. Eero Johannes & Teki Latex - Things That I Do 04. Crackboy & Jean Nipon - Ligne Onze 05. Dexter & Gant-Man - Ur Booty Soft 06. L-Vis 1990 & Sinjin Hawke - The Pit 07. Feadz & Orgasmic - Throw It up 08. Nicolas Malinowsky & Tommy Kruise - Disstopia 09. Truncate & TWR72 - Frame 10. Helix & Hrdvsion - Gmail
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