Advertisement

Album reviews Music

Delroy Edwards’s debut album is anti-pop, anti-digital and anti-glam

The beach isn’t the first image that springs to mind when listening to Los Angeles producer Delroy Edwards’s debut album.

As with the string of 12-inches and mixtapes he’s released on his own imprint, L.A. Club Resource, and for others, most notably respected techno label L.I.E.S., its 30 tracks are full of hard and raw drum patterns muffled by tape hiss and distortion that make his recordings sound as if they were unearthed after decades in a storage locker.

It’s an analog aesthetic that strongly recalls the seedy synth soundtracks and claustrophobic cityscapes of 80s horror and crime films. If a beach comes into the picture, chances are something skeezy is going down on it. 

Edwards’s music is avowedly anti-pop, anti-digital and anti-glam in its minimalism, whether he’s creating an eerie drone (Safe Places Pt. 1), a turbo-charged rhythm track (Crime Spree), funkified riffs (The Rocker), slo-mo squelching (Trigger Kids Revenge), romantic noise (Empty Pools) or an acidic banger (My Promise).

These songs run the gamut from techno, post-punk and g-funk to industrial, making Hangin’ At The Beach feel like a tour through the history of 80s DIY dance music. Most of the tracks are in the one- to two-minute range, and the quick change-ups draw particular attention to the variation in rhythm. 

Listening to this music is tantamount to watching a projection of old film stock that’s grainy and melting. That dense layer of texture adds a lived-in atmosphere as essential to this music as the upfront, aggressive beats. There are rhythms and sounds that instantly come off as nostalgic, but in the best moments the beats and textures merge to form something wholly unidentifiable. 

Top track: Horsing Around 

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.