After forming a solid reputation over the years they’ve been present in the UK underground, Boxwork have recently released on Vinyl a collection of lively, breathing tracks. From their label Unconditional Music, the techno and house infusions produced will work on the floor but have a few sharp edges you might not expect.
The confident beats of ‘Pressureface’ are set to a thudding pace, conveying clear tribal elements that add a certain flavour to the song and give it a natural sound as opposed to inundating it with artificial notes. I say tribal ‘elements’ because there are some tribal-like calls and an exotically rhythmic tenor, but no one’s playing the bongos (disappointment). It is relatively lengthy but makes it seem as though it’s a considerate move from it’s craftsmen in order to maximise dancing time. It is minimalistic yet deliberately so; the song coasts on its infectious tempo – with every right to do so.
As soon as you hear the maracas, the rest of the ‘That’s His Take’ doesn’t matter, because you know it’s going to be funky. This song is much more musically rich, bursting with riffs from a number of different and uncharacteristic instruments, like piano and guitar, giving the song a more earthy quality and blurring the line between genres. The energetic combinations keep the song in motion, steering well clear of the slight repetitiveness shown in the other two songs, simply because of the restless energy that the others show in a lesser fashion.
‘Michael Jackson’ is much more lively than the real thing, speckled with staccato synths and flowing over an under layer of eerie, smooth tones. The beat is unwavering, pounding out a dark melody along with the regular vocal input, which consists of the phrase ‘don’t call me Michael Jackson’ repeated over and over. And over. The song could do a little more to avoid repetitiveness, but overall it avoids out-and-out monotony through frequently shifting and sliding tones and sound effects, much like all three of the songs put forward.
I would highly recommend giving them a listen below:
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