Most producers coming from the UK underground choose a simple alias: Rusko, Skream, Joker. Not so for one “Orlando Dinosaur,” who records under the unwieldy and redundant Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. If his name doesn’t catch your attention, his totally enormous tracks definitely will.
The mysterious Oxford producer has released two EPs on Greco-Roman, a DJ collective and record label that is also home to Buraka Som Sistema and Drums of Death. TEED makes bass-heavy dance music, a sweet concoction of electro, fidget, and dubstep.
Last year’s All In One Sixty Dancehalls alternated between summery dance tunage and throbbing sub-bass wobble, sometimes all in one song, like on opener “Bournemouth.” The standout track, “Moon Hits the Mirrorball,” adds glitchy chiptune and Factory Records-esque vocals to the mix.
TEED must save all his creativity for his music, because the similarly-titled All In Two Sixty Dancehalls dropped just a few weeks ago. Picking up where the first left off, the new EP finds an expanded sonic range and an increased chance for a breakout hit or two. “Garden” is laidback and funky, with a subdued synthline reminiscent of The Street’s rave-tribute “Weak Become Heroes.”
“That One” and “Dipper” flow from UK funky into deep house sounds, with the latter building into a pneumatic breakdown. Filling the EP’s “which of these is not like the others” role is “Blood Pressure (dub),” a Redlight-like dub-and-bass banger that features dub master Riko.
Like most producers, TEED is also trying his hand at remixes. His take on the Crystal Fighters’ “Xtatic Truth” takes the Baleairc beat to 11, getting grimey with it for nearly two minutes longer than the original. Which is perfectly acceptable to bassheads like us.
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