If it's not the samples themselves but what you do with them,
You Guys Kill Me gets extra points for effort. The beats and effects Matt Elliott concocted aren't incredibly original (there's the sewing-machine Brazilian bossa shuffle and the downbeat from
Boogie Down Productions' "Bridge Is Over," along with various effects including howling dogs, dark crackly strings and metallic), but the slice-and-dice production, along with creative processing, transforms them into revelatory darkside symphonies. Elliott sounds as though he's
Ed Rush's indie-rockin' sibling, fooling around with big brother's equipment and crafting a very twisted version of post-rock tech-step reminiscent of
Amon Tobin as well as
Rome. Strangely, it works.