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Sound Advice: Token’ 808 by Vlsonn
Bass-music producer Vlsonn covers a lot of terrain in very little time on his new EP.
Token’ 808, the latest EP from Toronto bass-music producer Vlsonn, manages to pack a whole lot of diverse sounds—ranging from soft, introspective minimalism to in-your-face dance floor energy—into one very tight, well-conceived package.
Consisting of three songs and two remixes and borrowing from dubstep—think Skream and Benga, not Skrillex— as well as 2-step and old Detroit techno, Token’ 808 manages to evoke a whole range of feelings and vibes, despite having almost no lyrics.
The textured, building, trippy loops of “Eye Droops” come together to create a sound that’s both hypnotic and slightly spooky. Glitchy and full of squeaks and squelches, “Eye Droops” is great any way you listen to it, but the right pair of headphones or speakers allow all the nuances to come out and it really comes alive.
“Differences Dub” is a little sexier. The mixture of skittering high hats and soft, full keyboards, and a noise that sounds oddly like a drill turn the song into lapdance music from an all-robot strip club.
Faster paced and filled with atmospheric keyboards, “Lung Rot” is a little more dancefloor-friendly than the rest of the album. Token’ 808 gets even more kinetic with the two remixes of “Eye Droops” that round out the EP. Bassmynt’s take on the song has the spooky loops getting downright aggressive. The beats are harder, steadier, and more bassline-inspired—the whole package is more dramatic. Bassmynt takes “Droops” from haunting, cerebral trip-out to full-fledged, fist-pumping banger.
Terror Tone’s “Eye Droops” (streaming above) goes one step further. Under his guidance, what started out soft and hypnotic gets shot full of amphetamines, remodelled with a 2-step beat and a wobbling sub-bass that pops up like a Chuck E. Cheese whack-a-mole. It’s almost unrecognizable compared to the original. The samples are completely re-organized into a series of build-ups and break downs, and the mood has gone from spooky to celebratory.
Southern Ontario has a long, storied history in electronic music. For a period in the 1990s, Toronto was the epicentre of the North American rave scene, and the biggest act in electronic music today, Deadmau5, is originally from Niagara Falls. Vlsonn probably won’t get Mau5 big—his sound is too subtle to have that kind of mass appeal—but he certainly has a skill set and willingness to experiment that would make his forefathers proud.