Between hyperpop’s entry into the mainstream, Gen Z’s embrace of drum’n’bass, and the worldwide success of regional genres like footwork and singeli, warp-speed digital music is in all places, main the cost as common music, broadly talking, picks up the tempo. In his work as Itoa, the British producer Alex Godoy has staked his declare in dance music’s quick lane, often clocking 160-plus BPMs with out ever stalling out on easy style imitation. His music attracts deeply and liberally from rapid-fire strains of home and techno—traditional acid, footwork, bassline, and jungle—which he manipulates into wildly danceable assemblages. At its greatest, an Itoa track is filled with intricately shifting elements that, taken altogether, coalesce right into a sound that’s rubbery and relentless. On his newest EP, Oh No, Godoy presents a few of his most kinetic, funky, and oddly stunning work so far, refining his sound whereas additionally unlocking promising new abilities.
Opener “Moist Mind” kicks issues off on a barely anxious observe, constructing from a timid hi-hat and woodblock rattle earlier than escalating right into a footwork-fueled trance banger, full with chirping synths and uneven vocal science. What’s most outstanding is how seamlessly Godoy segues from pounding dance music into surprising pockets of beatless atmosphere and again once more. His expertise for wrongfooting the listener with each magnificence and brutality extends to “Girlboss Microplastix,” which lurches ahead with a damaged drum break earlier than the ground falls out and lands in a pocket of ominous calm, a respite earlier than the violence of the drums resumes with a vengeance.
Godoy’s coloration palette brightens significantly towards the center of the EP, at which level issues get wildly enjoyable. The title monitor, a collaboration with Japanese performer なかむらみなみ (Nakamura Minami), pits her staccato, shit-talking movement in opposition to an alternately throbbing and squelchy bassline that wouldn’t be misplaced on a SOPHIE report. In contrast to different vocalists who carry out over footwork—like Jessy Lanza, who floats dreamily above the combo, or DJ Taye, who races at mild pace in opposition to the clock—the rapper’s hop-scotching vocals fasten completely into the beat’s pocket, her each syllable constructing out the track’s kinetic rhythm and unlocking the latent mischief and swagger of Itoa’s manufacturing.
However the euphoric highpoint is the huge “Catch Eyes,” which weaves a grinding TB-303 bassline right into a quick-stepping syncopated rhythm; then, simply as the whole lot’s operating easily, Godoy detonates the track’s groove with an explosion of racing pinwheel synths and babbling, fragmented vocals. For an artist so expert at producing utilitarian, floor-filling dance music, Godoy clearly delights in proving simply how far he can tilt a monitor off its axis with out ever dropping the movement.
