Living with a foreign roommate has a lot of perks. Like their cooking: they’re using spices you never knew existed. But most intriguing is the double identity they seem to lead when speaking with a family member or peer from the same country in their native tongue. Though the language might change frequently, their essence and personality remains intact.
Similarly, Wolverhampton EDM producers Letherette foray into a different musical dialect and show us with their bilingual side on the new track Warstones. Listening to the tracks from their upcoming EP on Ninja Tune (!), you can hear that the uptempo electro instrumentals are a total departure from their previous material: smoked out electro R&B. As an avid listener of Letherette‘s debut EPs and their excellent remixes for Bibio and FUR, it’s a little surprising to hear them go in this direction. Is it disappointing? Not in the least; they are clearly expanding on their potential, and are aiming for an audience that would rather rage all night than wake and bake.
Warstones is almost like a mix in itself, with clearly divided phrasing that builds and builds, subtracts, and then builds on established beats with ease. The first 7 seconds, we’re lead into a lighthearted uptempo R&B jam, but by the :45 second mark, they are unafraid to tell you they mean business with kick drum, crunchy sound effects and bombastic cymbals. The soulful vocal samples and the arpeggio of high pitched synths successfully fills that Daft Punk void that many of us fans are going through. On that note, I consider Warstones to be like what the downtempo smooth “Something About Us” was for Daft Punk: an unfettered example of range. It’s a track that proves Letherette‘s sound can turn on a dime and not only maintain their character and integrity as producers, but ultimately still satisfy.