Slugabed – Time Team

Welding a playful axe to electronic music of the past, the young and rising star of Slugabed, aka Gregory Feldwick, has revealed a penchant for dressing up bass music as something that can be a bit more palatable to the techno elite. There is a definite attempt to combine garage influences with classic synth fetishism, as exemplified by the warm and welcome gaseous 8-bit keyboard turns that twist themselves throughout the much-hyped second single Sex.

 

With throwbacks to G-funk and the Pokemon Red soundtrack scattered across this LP, tracks like the comically titled Unicorn Suplex are laudable, but several key sequences lack the requisite punch that might take this material to the next level. Slugabed proves his ability to turn out fascinating melodies on every track and the album is not without its bangers (Mountains Come Out of the Sky), but Time Team feels regrettably unfocused, hopefully a trait that will pass with experience on future releases.