Monday, March 7th, 2016

Artist: Karma Fields (Facebook / Twitter)

Track: “Faint Echoes” (ft. Monarchy)

It’s a little cliche at this point to begin a review of a track on the Monstercat label with a general broad-brush description of the label – wildly hit-or-miss music (stemming, of course, from the fact that they release at least three original tracks a week), obscenely devoted fanbase which formulates one of the most impressive YouTube hiveminds around, yadda yadda yadda. To understand how Karma Fields’ newest LP, New Age | Dark Age, is one of the most interesting releases the label has put out in a very long time, though, it’s worth characterizing its reception within the confines of the label’s usual fans. “Stickup,” one of the album’s pre-release singles, was released on YouTube to one of the highest dislike-like ratios on any video from the label. Similar ratios exist for other songs from the album – the excellent “Greatness” (featuring the inimitable Talib Kweli on vocals) has about 1 dislike to every 10 likes as well. Suffice it to say, then, that Karma Fields is dividing the label’s core fanbase.

All this is to say that Karma Fields, in deviating from what many people involved in the community find comfortable, is actually doing really interesting things with their music. The currently-anonymous artist, at best, has dropped some of the most fun tuneless, staticky electro bangers around, picking up the mantle of artists like Boys Noize and Deadmau5 now that both are moving towards other areas of electronic music. “Faint Echoes” is a prime example of bumpin’ breakbeat, pop-house buildup dropping into a glorious mishmash of chainsaw blares and silvery synth stabs. It’s a great example of what possibly the best pop-oriented electronic LP of the year so far has to offer, and it’s worth a listen. Monstercat has racked up a large cache of misses in their long and storied history – this isn’t one of them.