Letherette (Bonus Track Version)

Making the jump from beatmaking and remixing to a full-on album is often an elusive goal for electronic musicians. For the duo Letherette, its self-titled debut bridges this gap while demonstrating a leap forward in artistry. With an appearance on Giles Peterson's Brownswood series and a remix of the artist Bibio, the pair showed that it had the production chops to make relevant and compelling beat-driven music. But on Letherette the duo turns this ability into an art, giving songs the time to breathe and change. Making references to soul and '70s rock in the midst of choppy instrumental hip-hop, there's a parallel to earlier works of RJD2 or Daft Punk in the mix. Yet Letherette's willingness to go more minimal and organic than those artists, and its kinship with the current generation of beatmakers, gives the duo an angle all its own.