Cracked Skulls and Angry Machines

Dibiase "Skullcrack" from Alpha Pup on Vimeo.

Nate Patrin dented the skull of Machines Hate Me with a 5.8 for Pitchfork and I can't knock his reasoning, even the score is too low by a point and change. At times, the record smacks of endearing but Gotcha! 8-bit flips that were fresh when Dibiase first brought his boom box to Sketchbook, but scalped by 2010, when every 19-year old Ableton aspirant thinks unremembered nostalgia is the sacred way of the Neon Indian.

For the far-sighted, the take-home point is  that "Dibiase exhibits moments where he downplays the gimmickry and ambushes you with something completely unanticipated. For all the Tyco nightglow atmosphere, the better tracks-- the billowy, flute-melting sleepwalk "Three Way Mirrors"; the haunted, crumbling soul of "Lumberjack"-- reveal a producer who has more on his agenda than just reinterpretive flashbacks." "Skullcrack" is somewhere in between -- the video inspired by the pink elephant's nightmare of Dumbo, the sound a mixture of green smoke and olive-dark bass. Something new and something old.

Download: MP3: Dibiase-"Lumberjack" MP3: Dibiase - BTS Radio (RETURN OF THE SLUDGE (BEAT SHOWCASE #004)