American big electro and bass music stands at a crossroad. Its bubblegum freshness, after much gnashing of teeth, has been reduced to a Molly jaw ache. If the concept of big electro and bass is to maintain, it needs to be rethought. With that in mind, one wouldn’t expect the Glitch Mob, a big electronica act out of LA that has found a way to make a dollar from big cash grabs like the Tron Soundtrack remix album, to proffer much to stir the pretensions of music bloggers.
Through the architecture of the remix, Emalkay has redesigned the Glitch Mob’s ‘Skullclub’ into something that speaks to the integrity and rich tradition of hard UK bass and at the same time gives American audiences something to consider for the future of their bass scene.
There is a mature and sophisticated overall impression to the track that owes its essence to the unaccustomed restraint executed in the remix; the aggressive aesthetics of electro-bass loses its Dada shock to the Bauhaus-esque smoothing of edges and new-found functionality.
The remix still features the expected elements of American-style bass; complex fidgeted vocals and noise, hard and stacked drums, and searing midrange voices. However, never does a monstrous drop come. I can imagine hearing younger Detroit royalty drop the production as a functional plateau to bridge a set from a sexier warm-up to a manic finish. Here we have the defining characteristic of this bass track – sublimity in the plateau. We are exploring a new territory, Progressive Bass.