Equiknoxx

Equiknoxx, the Jamaican duo of Jordan Chung and Gavin Blair, penned the electronic instrumentals of Bird Sound Power (DDS, 2016), a set of cold-hearted calmly-pulsing synth-pop novelties (in fact, pre-synthpop, back to Tonto's Expanding Head Band and the Silver Apples). The looping insanely childish reggae singalong Last Of The Mohicans is typical of their method. It generally yields similarly lightweight formuals, for example A Rabbit Spoke To Me When I Woke Up: bird chirping + hyperbass + pounding beat. The catchiest melody surfaces amid the Walt Disney-ian clockwork of Timebird, something like an alien remix of the Penguin Cafè Orchestra. A petulant melody surfs the sparser rhythmscape of Peanut Porridge. Their dub substrate matches industrial overtones (and perhaps Brian Eno-esque futurism) in Clunk and Clink. Even colder methodic machine music is served in the gamelan-like Porridge Should Be Brown Not Green. There is little to reference contemporary dance music, but one can hear echoes of the Neptunes production style in I Really Want To Write On Her Purple Wall. The influence of Caribbean carnival percussions impacts Someone Flagged It Up (that also conflates Steve Reich-ian repetition and sci-fi synths) and The Link.