- The elusive '10s Mixpak protégé returns with a surprise EP of bright and buoyant club tunes with just a bit of bass bite.
- From the red carpet to the pop charts to Oneman's Instagram, the '10s are back, baby. For a certain vintage of ageing dance fans (cough, cough), it's been exciting to hear the era when house and techno got rearranged by the lower frequencies of bass music—from dubstep to Jersey club thanks to crews like GHE20G0TH1K and Night Slugs—rinsed in clubs again. It's also inevitably led to some questionable revisionist history (do we really need to see the return of the cringe Facebook night out album?). One of the most unexpected blasts from the past, though, has been the return of Dubbel Dutch, a producer who had quite literally disappeared for half a decade.
Back in the early '10s, Dubbel Dutch, AKA Marc Glasser, was one of the breakthrough stars of the post-dubstep bubble. On a series of releases for Mixpak, the then ascendant label-turned-blog, Glasser created a style of dance music that drew liberally from dancehall, hip-hop, grime and Jersey club. This style was very of that moment, but it's also impressive to hear how his last solo release, 2013's Cloud Club still holds up with its synthetic dembow rhythms polished with flecks of trance euphoria.
After that release, Glasser focused on collaborations, landing credits for certified pop stars. He produced Popcaan's breakthrough ballad "Everything Nice" and quickly found himself continuously working in this world, whether he was turning out trap-meets-reggaeton riddims for Bad Gyal or steel-drum hip-hop beats for Lizzo. But this was also the dawn of the streaming era when it was becoming increasingly difficult to eke out a living from music. As he recounted to Shawn Reynaldo in a recent interview, by 2019, he was completely disillusioned with the music industry. He was sick of living in his van, working countless hours on music and still not making enough money. He taught himself how to code, sold that van and moved to Hawaii, landing a tech job and leaving behind the limelight he had been approaching.
That is, until now. Over a decade since Glasser's last solo release, he returns with Cosmic Tone Poems. Built around the contrast between synth lines that float like champagne bubbles and basslines that plunge the tracks down to earth, the EP updates the sort of genre promiscuity he championed in the '10s. There are moments where you can hear the Glasser of the '10s—the cartoonish dancehall "Computer Sanity" would be right at home on Mixpak and closer "Drums Please" harkens back to the dawn of the TNGHT era. But it's not all a trip down memory lane. Cosmic Tone Poems is a triumphant return for Glasser that jumps between everything from Baltimore club to rave to trap to even surf rock.
The record's wiggly and bass-centric centrepiece, "Mosaic Virus," is a case study of how Glasser creates head-spinning sonic collages. The tune starts with the slinky and elastic UK-style techno you can hear on labels like Livity Sound, but then things take a left turn. A bouncy bassline that would have been right at home in an old NGUZUNGUZU mix emerges, weaving in and out of candy-coated trance melodies and big dubstep wobbles before reaching a breakbeat crescendo.
Things are even wilder elsewhere. Ever wonder what a surf rock Baltimore club track would sound like? Check the way he takes a dreamy 8-bit synthline and merges it with a lazy Dick Dale-worthy guitar solo on "Zebra Dove" while dicing an Amen break like he's working the line at The Bear. The Mixpak throwback melody on the lilting dancehall tune "Passiflora" is as gentle as blowing daffodils in the wind, but the way the Reese bassline hits adds an ominous growl to the edges of the stereo field. These tunes pay homage to the post-dubstep glory years but also show that Glasser doesn't simply rest on his laurels. Instead, he opts for a record that charts new directions. Despite the ups and downs of his ride through the music industry, Glasser can still make tunes that sound like he's having more fun than anyone else.
TracklistO1. Passifl0ra
02. Computer Sanity
03. Mosaic Virus
04. Good Things Come
05. Zebra Dove
06. Drums Please