Lorin Ashton, aka
Bassnectar, continues to be one of the two or three most exciting and inventive purveyors of bass music on the dance music scene.
Timestretch finds him moving away from some of the more familiar elements of his signature style: you won't hear any sudden shifts from straight beats to swing feel; there's no straight-up junglism; and an almost dubsteppy deliberation characterizes many of these elephantine grooves. But at the same time, his sound remains instantly recognizable: deep, squidgy basslines that sound like they were fashioned out of nylon and lemon juice; synth parts that look back to the '80s with more affection than irony; vocal samples selected for both joyfulness and humor; and a busyness and density of texture that somehow never comes across as claustrophobic. Although technically billed and sold as an EP,
Timestretch features five new tracks and three remixes and clocks in at just over 45 minutes; as you might expect, the remixes (two of "Basshead," one of "Timestretch") diverge so wildly from the original versions that they might as well be completely different tracks. The program's highlight, though, may be "Maximum," which features an extremely odd Asian-chorus vocal sample, French rapping by Marseillais MC
La Methode, and a sublimely swaggering beat. Don't listen to this one at work if you want to get anything done the rest of the day.