The Range’s tracks remind me of millipedes: Simple shapes in garish colors that bustle on crazy-legged gaits. “Washingtons”, the last track on his new Panasonic EP, exemplifies the electronic producer’s knack for texturing glossy tones with busy, off-kilter rhythms. The synthetic harp melody unfurls neatly, but the percussion beneath it scrambles and writhes, providing an antic locomotion. It's the same kind of aural illusion that Providence producer James Hinton cultivated on last year's Nonfiction, where he plumbed deep dynamics between soft, easy melodies and jagged, intricate drums, polished digital tones and crude stream-ripped samples.
Panasonic adds six more satisfying variations to the bright, gently jostling terrain of that fine debut. There are a few callbacks to "Metal Swing", a Nonfiction standout that combined zigzagging production and loose, low-res grime vocals. On "Two", piano tones and hats elevate homely rap refrains towards fervor; "Ed Reed Jersey" is built around a terse, skipping boast, and the hardness of the vocal is matched by deep, implacable bass and a blocky snare, but also tempered by a sweet swirl of melody that makes it gully music for sensitive souls.
On Panasonic opener "Slow Build", Hinton slowly alchemizes minimal techno into rugged hip-hop, looping R&B refrains and rap posse chants through a purposefully limping bass line. With one exception—the supple, drilling "Tricky Pose" is almost straight-faced drum'n'bass—he continues to find rococo rhythmic seams between disparate substances. "Sony" is on-trend with its winsome chipmunk vocal samples but replaces the dubstep-lite backing that often accompanies them with steady, thick-piled synth pop, while "Two" approximates the sound of a classical piano trio before introducing a fleet, strafing rhythmic undercarriage. Hinton restrains his melodies to dewy loops and airy progressions, using plucked string and piano sounds to leave space for his pillowy basses and feathery drum programs. The music is always characterized by the sense of time coiling and swirling below smooth façades, but on Panasonic, The Range uses this technical heft to achieve surprisingly accessible and emotive results.
