Contemporary collaborations are a fascinating byproduct of digitally produced and recorded music. The ease with which files can be traded and manipulated is a far cry from music recorded before the advent of the modern electronic age. When journalists ask producers how their collaborations come about, a common answer is “we just started passing files back and forth.” It’s an exciting way to work with other people, even though it has the possibility to be frightening when your transformed sounds come back to you. Luckily Peverelist and Hyetal don’t seem to suffer from any potential clashes of sound or production on their collaborative new single for Punch Drunk, The Hum/rrr.
The bottom-heavy micro-programming of “The Hum” is a typically intricate dubstep number influenced by jungle and techno, reflecting Peverelist’s recent output. However, the twinkling synths and bright pads that float over this heady dance floor concoction move the melody squarely into Hyetal’s area. This is where the intersection of two unique producers meld together to create a new sound that begins to shed its reference to the original producers. Sometimes artists will call their collaboration by a new name, and I can see why when listening to these two tracks. They sound very different to the sandboxes these both artists usually play in. With Hyetal’s liquid sheen coating the roots percussion of “The Hum,” the contrast between retro and future is blurred, placing this track squarely in the now.
Where “The Hum” was weighted to the Peverelist side of percussion, the flipside’s strangely titled “rrr” feels more to be Hyetal’s show in this department. On this track and “The Hum,” the staccato nature of the programming hearkens back to early electro’s experimentation. However, on “rrr,” the beats also swing with a subtle hip-hop flavor, showing the off-kilter rhythms that influenced this producer. It’s a murky stew that is brewed here, dubbed out snares and quiet synths in the background, with snatches of vocals in syncopation. When the spiraling 8-bit melody creeps in near the middle, the song starts to become brighter, rising out of the dark beginning with a light air of hopefulness, almost like the track has a character arc. In this modern age of collaborations, “The Hum” and “rrr” shows what happens when two artists successfully come together to explore how their sounds’ complement each other.
