Everything about Last Step's 1961 feels slightly wrong. He keeps a simple toolkit, sticking to unvarnished Roland TR-808 drum machines, sampled drum breaks and what sounds like a handful of analog synthesizers (or, perhaps, their faithful digital clones), but it's all cloaked in a weird, warbly murk, where sounds bleed together and melodies seem to mold like lukewarm milk filmed in time-lapse. What his jittery assemblages borrow from Aphex Twin, Mu-Ziq and Squarepusher isn't just a palatte of squelchy synthesizers and choppy beats, but a restless and relentless approach to arrangement. His stuff doesn't just move, it's on the move, always, trying out a riff or a key change and then darting like a barn swallow in a different direction. The eccentric "Haha Waffles" sounds like an acid-house update of 18th-century salon music, all squiggly pirouettes and squirmy accidentals — and counted out in a measure of seven, at that. There are plenty of playful time signatures here, including "Portoghese," a sprightly, shivery cut that stubbornly resists parsing: forget four-to-the-floor, this is more like six and a half. It's not all so clever, though: tracks like "Seafoam Green" and "Triple Self Portrait" make nice with the rules just enough… read more »