- How do you follow "Ramos?" With something even crazier.
- Ploy's music has always stood out in a competitive field of skilful, inventive producers he's appeared alongside on labels like Timedance and Hessle Audio. Unlit Signals, his L.I.E.S. LP from 2020, saw him move freely between club music forms, reinforcing the heavy percussive experimentation of Timedance EPs like Ramos with industrial feedback and walls of droning noise that close in on the listener from all sides. The production on Rayhana, the first release on his new label Deaf Test, draws from the same pool of ideas, striking an impressive balance between precision and mania.
The bass-heavy, almost atonal title track draws from a range of influences from industrial to Baile funk, with fascinating interplay between loose, swinging percussion and a chopped-up vocal sample that lags just slightly behind. "5G Bats" is equally ear-catching, this time resting on a slow, lurching dancehall beat. The first minute-and-a-half throws down a gauntlet of curveballs—layers of percussion that are added and taken away without warning, growling basslines and blaring panic alarms.
For me, "Dark Lavis" is the most satisfying track. While some of Ploy's dense rhythmic might seem tailor-made for shock factor or inducing claustrophobia, on "Dark Lavis" there's a new sense of space as the drums seem to sit back and cruise, making way for a massive, screaming synth lead. Underneath all the noise, you can't help but focus on the bassline, and particularly this one dipping, overdriven bass-tone that comes in every 16 bars. It's the kind of small detail that gets more effective each time you hear it, repeating infrequently enough to keep you in a constant state of excited, nervous anticipation. Ploy's approach to club music is as creative as it always was, and scarier than ever.
Tracklist01. Rayhana
02. Dark Lavis
03. 5G Bats