DEF KITH Record Release Show 12/6/14

With the Def Kith EP, the usually mononymous Martin Dosh and Jon “Ghostband” Davis debut their techno-addled, IDM-damaged brand of bass-blessed dance music. Across these three or four generous cuts (“Twin Speak” is digital only) we hear two “one-man-band” types becoming a single machine. It’s the rhythm section’s revenge as the respective drums and bass of countless jazz and odd-rock ensembles put their improvisatory chops to work, funneling a lifetime of wild musical obsessions (Sun Ra, Squarepusher, the RZA, Caribou) into their live electronica.

You might look to “Twin Speak” as a sort of sampler platter. A warm blurt is soon usurped by a four-four pulse — a harbinger of the seemingly hundred-plus interlocking pieces that jitter and wobble their way to a manic 13-minute whole. Left-field sonics, Afro-Latin percussion, Chicago house, playful melodies, and squelching sequences get caught up in the swirl. Other tracks stay vibrant but occupy a more defined space. “False Starts” rattles through a dark, lush soundscape too fast for Forest Swords, but too slow for footwork. “Bristol Bounce” approximates a vision of Miami bass abstracted through its municipal namesake’s rich history of aural experimentation. And “Tet a Tet” openly references the ever influential Kieran Hebden, but carves its own identity out of Jamaican dub, Moroder synth, and broken beat. Fourteen minutes later: silence.

But not for long. Dosh & Ghostband are hard at work on a full-length album — due on Anticon in 2015…