- There's something imprinting about the Night Slugs logo—the videogame-font words seeming to dance in place in front of a galaxy-shooter game's deep-space-with-stars backdrop. It's easy to get a similar sensation listening to the debut from Toronto DJ/producer David Psutka, AKA Egyptrixx. Bible Eyes is the first single-artist disc Night Slugs has put out. The synths are stacked and dappled like the Milky Way; the beats suggest vistas coming to you in 3D from a flatscreen. It's big, commanding, mature and does an ace job of ushering the label into the wider world where full-lengths matter while still managing to communicate the urgent surge forward that typifies Night Slugs as a singles label.
"Start from the Beginning" kicks it off good and brooding, murky trio-jazz instrumentation sent through some alluring decay and playing a shady theme. "Bible Eyes" is the introduction proper—a hard thumping house kick and shaker-as-hi-hat ground a lot of fizz. This is the sound Egyptrixx turned heads (mine, anyway) with on last year's remix of Cubic Zirconia's "Josephine"—those wizzy-wow notes that spiral up and around like drunk birds in midair. It's cute, but it's also deadly effective on the track, and it establishes Bible Eyes' generous playful streak as well as its twixt-floor-and-home comfort zone. It also sets the stage for the album's later big set pieces. "Liberation Front" begins as a grinding bounce with a more mid-range version of that signature synth curl, but midway through it's cut into by rising synth chords—a lovely left turn. "Recital (A Version)" is tech house that swooshes and soars. Nothing about this music is shy about its big-room aspirations.
It helps that this is a well integrated album; the parts fit. "Chrysalis Records" is knowingly titled—it was the home of Blondie, of whom this song is as much descendant as anything, thanks to Trust's cool vocal performance, and to Egyptrixx's icy synth hooks. Trust also appears on "Fuji Club," snarling dubstep so slow-mo that it apparently drags her voice down about five octaves. It's part and parcel with an album where tones don't stay still for long as a rule, but Egyptrixx's craftsmanship means that it needs little interpretation.
Tracklist 01. Start from the Beginning
02. Bible Eyes
03. Chrysalis Records feat. Trust
04. Liberation Front
05. Naples
06. Rooks Theme
07. Recital (A Version)
08. Fuji Club (feat. Trust)
09. Barely
10. Recital (B Version)