Blaquewerk

Deadboy's Blaquewerk EP is a perfect example of the underground dance music zeitgeist in 2013. Its aesthetic is staunchly based in retro influence, but modern tweaks give it a purely contemporary angle. "On Your Mind" builds a huge amount of tension to a feverish point, combining old-school drum machine programming and hands-in-the-air synth stabs; then it drops down to nothing but a kick drum and bass line. This kind of "anti-drop" can be tricky to pull off, but Deadboy squeezes a fantastic amount of energy out of it—a real touch of brilliance. "Geek'd Up" and "Black Reign" are both deeper material; they're darker than the leading track, paying homage to minimal house and ambient-leaning U.K. garage, respectively. Rounding out the retro penchant is "Nova," which chops up classic jungle drums as if channeling AK1200 or Aphrodite's jump-up style of decades past.