Veröffentlicht
Apr 10, 2017
- Let's put the artist name to one side. And the YouTube algorithm. Let's not get into the think pieces. Or dissect the genre name. Instead, let's pose this question: is the new Ross From Friends, Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes, any good?
"In An Emergency," the opener, is. It's a humid house track that layers lovely vocal samples and keys over a gently degraded drum machine. It will get played a lot. "XOXOXO," the following track, isn't. It seems to be saying that, in and of itself, a drum machine run through lots of distortion and processing is interesting.
The B-side tracks fall somewhere in the middle. "Crystal Catcher (Weed)" has some of the same issues as "XOXOXO" but there's more going on with its arrangement and samples, as brief snatches of melody and incidental noises are punched into the groove. Like "In An Emergency," "Donny Blew It" has enough sonic presence to feel useful for DJs. It's based on a similar style of sample and keys, and has the same subtly anthemic quality. So to answer the original question: yes and no. Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes has the unpretentious charm that has made lo-fi house so popular, and some of the cheap tricks that make it difficult to take seriously.
TracklistA1 In An Emergency
A2 XOXOXO
B1 Crystal Catcher (Weed)
B2 Donny Blew It