- A lot of DJ Qu's music operates by stealth: his elusive sounds crouch in thick fog, amid half-heard utterances and crunchy undergrowth. SS1 is more plainspoken, though it doesn't break cover entirely. The title track is punchy and bold: the drums hit hard and the chords that shadow them are equally insistent. About halfway through, the synth stabs fracture and then regroup in the breakdown, as if caught in a brief skirmish.
On "Fearless" Qu applies a little more trickery to equally compelling effect. It samples a speech by an American schoolboy, Dalton Sherman, and manipulates it to make him sound like a firebrand preacher (Sherman was, in fact, 10 years old at the time). A weeping string section and pitter-patter drums flesh out the track's contours. "Lovebox" adopts "SS1"'s bludgeoning groove, but Qu squeezes more into its chassis. A chord sequence, a skin-grazing shaker and blotchy vocals add a customary dash of strangeness and mystery.
TracklistA SS1
B1 Fearless
B2 Loveboxx