Randomer – Scruff Box / Get Yourself Together

Label: Hemlock

Scruff Box

Get Yourself Together

London-based producer Randomer hasn’t been releasing for too long, but is very quickly establishing a sound for himself. Early releases on Hessle and Super showed a range of styles but it was in his recent Real Talk EP on Numbers that Randomer really hit his mark; displaying a rough-edged approach to House that aims big and hits hard. This double A-side release on Hemlock shows Randomer refining his style, kicking off with Scruff Box. This is Dance music taken to its roughest roots, it’s all about those heavy, skipping beats and a monstrous bass riff that tears into the fabric of the track. Abrupt vocal and synth samples penetrate the sound in a precise, mechanical fashion, leaving very little that could be called a human touch. The cold, harsh style of these beats may not be to everyone’s taste, lacking the tight construction of German Techno or the raw viscerality of someone like Objekt, but the track hits home, and looks set to dominate dancefloors.

B-side Get Yourself Together is perhaps a stronger cut because it stretches Randomer’s style all the way to the limit, discordant keys and static rips building to a massive first drop, where a huge elasticated bassline once more starts to rip into the sound. Although there’s a fair amount of sonic detail accompanying the showstopping noises, these tracks can feel a little too reliant on big features rather than a real sense of variation or construction, and occasionally bear a too-close similarity to Blawan's output, but that doesn’t take away from their value in the club. If you’re looking for something with a lot of depth and warmth it might be worth looking elsewhere, but both these tunes will hit home for DJ’s looking for a hard, mechanical sound as well as fans of Randomer’s previous release.

7/10