Women’s Studies / Women's Studies

As a rabid enthusiast of Chicago juke — an underground genre that lumps together Chicago house, bass music, and ghetto tech — Chrissy Murderbot attempts to bring the craze out of the warehouses and into the public eye with his Planet Mu debut. On Women’s Studies, there are musical aspects of juke, but Murderbot’s frantic footwork beats have a poppy refinement. While his sugary take on the style is toned back for the masses (evident by PG-rated titles like “Bump Uglies” and “Heavy Butt”), the savant of urban and U.K. club music keeps his production creative by lifting from a whirlwind of subgenres (including unexpected shots of ambient jungle, hardstep, happy hardcore, rave, and drum'n'bass). Dancehall probably plays the biggest part of his vision, and he recruits a fine selection of toasters to sings over his chewy bass grooves, including DJ Gant-Man, DJ Spinn, Young Live, Add-2, Al B. Certain, Rubi Dan, Popeye, PEEJ, and MC Zulu. All the varying artists and intersecting styles keep the attitude gutsy, and even though the bulk of Women’s Studies is retro-sounding (even to the point of taking chopped bits from DJ Snowflake’s “Uh, Oh Work It Work It,” or Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison”), his enthusiasm amps up the experience to keep things fun, and all the tectonic sample-shifting culminates into a fairly original Pangea of his own; one in which Murderbot delivers the goods necessary to get people on the floor and moving their feet without resorting to standard four-on-the-floor cliches.