Artist: Knife Party
Release: 100% No Modern Talking
As Janet Jackson once said, the best things in life are free. Case and point, Knife Party’s debut EP ‘100% No Modern Talking’, which is free for download on their Facebook and website. Which in itself is a great start.
I have high hopes for this one as it already has huge names behind it as, Knife Party is a duo founded by two members of only bloody Pendulum, Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen. As well as this EP they have also worked with some of the biggest names in EDM this year. Nero, they remixed ‘Crush On You‘. Swedish House Mafia, they remixed ‘Save The World’. Plus one of my favorite acts of 2011; Porter Robinson, to which they chopped up ‘Spitfire‘, my personal Porter Robinson favorite.
The name ‘100% No Modern Talking’ is a reference to a waveform ina software synthesizer, Massive, made by Native Instruments, which I myself am very guilty of overusing! The EP features four tracks: “Internet Friends,” “Destroy Them With Lazers,” “Tourniquet,” and “Fire Hive“.Now, the music itself. I’m not sure of the running order of the EP, as when you download it from the website, it just gets chucked in your downloads folder, so it’s just a case of which tracks iTunes finds first!
My first is, ‘Destroy Them With Lazers’. Which to me, is the weakest track on the EP. I find it lacks a little something. While the vocal sample is right on the money and the drop is insane the track itself gets very old very quickly. The track become predicable and lazy after the first 2 drops. Which in a 5 minute long track, is a major downfall.
‘Fire Hive‘ throws a drum and bass spanner in the works. With most of it’s core firmly in the dubstep camp, the random D’n’B vocal sample and odd beat really mixes things up, and gives it an exciting feeling. Much needed after the first track. It would also mix very well with Zomboy’s remix of ‘Bass Cannon’, but thats my idea.
Now, the eargasm of the EP, ‘Internet Friends‘. This contains one of the greatest drops I have ever heard. Taking inspiration from films like Psycho and the Scream series, the sounds of footsteps and a iPhone ringing over the screeching synths as the vocals chant; “You blocked me on facebook, now your going to die”. This excites me so, and is by far the saving grace of this EP.
The last, ‘Tourniquet‘ is yet other killer. With all beat and no audible vocal sample, this is a excellent end to the EP as a whole. Again, a little over long at 5:18 but this time it holds up. Look out for it in my future sets with a camp pop acapella over the top!
So the EP as a whole is good, but I feel it is missing a little something. Maybe if Destroy Them With Lazers wasn’t on there I’d think differently. Also their is good news, on 16 December 2011, Knife Party stated on twitter that they had begun work on their next EP.
Reviewer: Danny Atticus
