The Answer Is In The Beat

Xentone: The Raver GF Experience (Degenerate Trifecta, 2020)

March 28, 2021 at 12:13 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This 75-minute album seems to be a manifesto for the artist’s own brand of minimal dance music, dubbed “nunurave” (not to be confused with the justly forgotten “nu-rave” fad from around 2006). The tracks mix up styles, but generally consist of effective club tools which explore fun, ear-catching sounds. The titles are never too ambitious, simply describing sounds or samples heard in the tracks. Several songs share words in their titles and sounds/sonic elements, so they can be a bit samey, but that just gives the album the continuity of a DJ mix or live set. Starting off with the slow, choppy electro of “Acid Slip 004 Laster Tag Ravers”, the album moves into the minimal but big-bassed techno of “The Numbers”. “Acid Dip003 Nunu” is a mix of early ’90s rave (Hoovers, 2 Unlimited samples) with more modern EDM. “Deep Think” is sort of a pun, mixing that BDP “I think very deeply” sample into a deep house-ish track. “Bouncy House” turns K7’s “Come Baby Come” into a big-room stormer with a Dutch house bent. “Acid Trip 005 Microrave” is midtempo, trippy, a bit eerie, and has kind of a lo-fi dembow bounce to it. “Look At Her Butt” has no ambition other than to have fun with the exact sample you would expect (the intro to “Baby Got Back”). “Acid Drop” is one of the better, more progressive club tracks here, mixing rave stabs heavy Euro-drama. “Acid Dip009 Egyptian After Party” definitely lives up to its title, with Middle Eastern-inspired melodies and lots of wayward synth fx freakery. “Dancer” has glitchy disco samples and Chemical Brothers-like breaks and fx. “Acid Dip002 Nunushoes” chops up an “Apache” breakbeat and slices in some more rave synths, then gets feisty with a “don’t fuck with me” attitude. “Shorty Bang” is a bit more smoothed out than its title suggests but still has some complexity and some swing to its rhythm.