Falcon Punch – Show Me Your Moves (2014)

There is definitely a hormone within me that makes me susceptible to liking drum-and-bass, and appreciating a nicely syncopated breakbeat every now and again. Perhaps in recent years I have become a little disillusioned by the electronic scenes and their plethora of build ups and bass drops. How many more times can ‘the kick’ be administered before it goes completely stale? Thankfully, there has always been a surge of exciting experimental and antithetic electronica artists that have picked the cherries and left the rather ugly-looking tree for dead; bands like Aphex Twin, PVT, Battles, Three Trapped Tigers, Vessels, and anything that the anticon label has ever released.

And thank heavens for Toronto’s Falcon Punch and their sophomore release Show Me Your Moves, which continues this transcendence from the familiarity of contemporary dance music. Falcon Punch exploits the motifs bequeathed to them by their electronic forefathers, only to twist and recoil them to suit their artistic desires.

The five tracks of Show Me Your Moves are rich in polyrhythms, odd time signatures and disjunctive chord progressions. And, most importantly, they are damn catchy. Falcon Punch’s intentional skewing of genres appears obvious from the album’s glorious opener, ‘Do You Even Lift?’, which builds structurally complex jazz and math rock around electronic scaffolding (hell, they even throw a cheeky bass drop in there). In similar fashion, ‘Fever Nostalgic’ mixes ringing lounge synths, vocoder vocals and upbeat drum-and-bass. The tracks of Show Me Your Moves are refreshingly erratic and impulsive, but still mingle in familiar dance territory.

Falcon Punch’s reckless yet elegant nature makes me confident that they know exactly what they are doing, and that they have full awareness of the territories they’re nonchalantly walking between. Show Me Your Moves is a truly impressive release and one that rubs shoulders with the cherry pickin’ greats.