January 26, 2018 - Twin Turbo
Montreal’s king’s (Tiga’s) Turbo Recording’s sub label Twin Turbo (whew) just hit 50 releases, which is important because that’s a lot of releases, and 50 is a solid, even, round number that people usually get excited about because they feel they can visualize it more easily as it is something, namely half of 100. Twin Turbo was lucky enough to have legends Harvard Bass and Shaded be the ones to produce the 50th release (heck, maybe they even planned it). This is particularly neat for us, as a Harvard Bass track was among the first tracks ever transitioned into during one of the first DJ sets preformed by one of our staff writers. (It was me.)
Beyond the nostalgia, the two producers have come to the table with two tracks that are comfortable in the Twin Turbo catalogue. The tracks stay out of your face while they groove along, but they remain fleshy and tangible if you’d like to get closer to them yourself.
This EP was released almost exactly a year after the Time Wasting EP the collaborators collaborated on. Back then, Shaded’s name came before that of Harvard Bass, but this year it’s reversed, a move we can only speculate as being only fair to the two wonderful artists. The tracks on this year’s release feel in similar to style to the previous EP, if not a bit more sure of themselves. We’re sure that the confidence level of the pair remains exactly where it was last year, as it’s been at the highest it can be since the beginning of their respective timelines.
The titular track features newcomer Herswerve. All we could find out about this artist are a few social media accounts that share a profile image of two men in the foreground and a woman in the background. One of the men looks exactly like Shaded, so we can assume that Herswerve is probably the other figure in the foreground. If we know anything about putting a feature on a dance track, it’s that the feature is usually supplying the vocals. ‘Body Feels’ uses these minimal vocal bits to fill in the gaps between layered drone sweeps of varying frequencies, which sound nice.
The second track on the EP is what turned heads here in the office. ‘Work’ is a high-energy but low-effort track that uses a combination of audio elements to build a sense of time-running-out tension, while a female-sounding vocal bit calmly tells the listener(s) to “work that ass.” I doubt if anyone listening actually does what the vocals are saying to do, but it’s a nice sentiment.
Turbo Recordings and Twin Turbo both stand as pillars in the world of culture, effortlessly holding up a marble dance floor that everyone should care about but only a few should actually be dancing on, because it’s no fun when it gets crowded. This Body Feels EP is a solid addition to the Twin Turbo vault and is certainly going to keep the party going for a lot of people, a lot of the time going forward. 🍍