Kode9 & The Spaceape - Otherman / Love Is The Drug (ft Cha Cha)

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4...according to our Clinton on Fri 01 Apr, 2011.

Dis is a nice bit of tuneage on your Hyperdub label ting. Nice electro dub soundscapes with crunching beats and squeaky synths are overladen by edgy paranoid vocals crunched and distorted beneath the mix. On the flip 'Love is the Drug' thankfully not the Roxy Music staple features a repetitive female vocal, droney synth buzz and sensual almost sexual moaning as she works herself up into a lather.

‘Otherman’ backed with ‘Love Is The Drug’ is the lead single from Kode9 And The Spaceape's second long player 'Black Sun'. Coming from oblique angles, these two songs introduce the breadth of the album. ‘Otherman’ opens with a sombre, arpeggiated march built from wavering analogue synth drones, lulling the listener until Spaceape's cracked communique interrupts the flow with downtrodden descriptions, wrapped around lop-sided rhythms. Sombre, flatline funk. ‘Love Is The Drug’ features the vocals of Cha Cha, a singer from Shanghai, who guests across four tracks on the album. ‘Love Is The Drug’ is ambiguously connected to house music by speed, but operates on a much rawer emotional level here, over a droning synth and an aggressively coiling drum pattern with the sound of a pumping heartbeat at the centre. Cha Cha's vocals drift into a sensual pattern as the melody soars beneath her, before confirming the suffocation of love, with Spaceape whispering over her shoulder.