Year in Pop: 2016

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Darnum Samp

Catching up with Darnum Samp; press photo courtesy of the artist.

Catching up with Darnum Samp; press photo courtesy of the artist.

LA’s Darnum Samp has sent out word that they have been working on their upcoming Low Body Tapes EP (available TBD), and we have been hooked to their trippy single “Tap The Tapes”. Call it the Low End Theory effect, or the Hellfyre Club devotees, or the influence of the bedroom laptop producers & emcees who have been absorbing random Bandcamp releases & all the latest & greatest from the east coast, midwest & southern scenes—DS displays a keen sense of bombast styles & calculated cleverness that sounds at home with their east coast counterparts on the GODMODE roster.

“Tap The Tapes” arrives like an intercepted transmission received via transistors from an unidentified transmitter. The dial is turned through rhythms that are guided by the various synths & effects that become part of the involved mix where the production resembles something of a clever science experiment. Once the backboard of beats & progression of key patterns are introduced, Do Proper & Sosa Deph bring the new-new in backpack pop where they abandon the boom-bap for the most spaced-out dance-hop with a super smoky delivery. The duo presented us the track with the following exclusive insights on it’s inception & development:

This track was kind of like a techno puzzle, we added Elements added piece by piece over the course of a month or so. it started it just as a drum track… it wasn’t until a month or so down line til we decided to throw some melodic repetitive vocals on it…. Then we were like ok this sounds dope … how bout a rap verse too.

That’s the way a lot of our tracks go. No real destination in mind. And just add whatever fits as he days go by. Eventually we end up with a mash up that works.

The song is about being caught in a masochistic celebration of a love where you can’t shake the thought of a past lover.