WooliebuGGer Goes Deep on Singles “Drift”, “Transmission”
By Deuce
There are some songs that are overtly made for the dance floor. It’s always obvious when artists have obvious commercial intentions, are shooting for radio play, video play, or any sort of Billboard—or Soundscan—chart.
Other tunes are much more countercultural, if not flat out subversive. Several rap numbers fall into this category with obvious allusions to socially deviant behavior pertaining to themes of misogyny, violence, and a largely subterranean ethos that simply wouldn’t fit into any sort of commercial aspirations anywhere.
WooliebuGGer’s latest two singles (which appear to have been released simultaneously) eschew both of these intentions, or perhaps tread the fine line between them. Esoteric is one of the adjectives that readily comes to mind after playing the appropriately titled “Transmission” and “Drift” back to back. Other aspects of them are outright clandestine, or perhaps so expansive that they defy categories and description themselves.
“Transmission”, for example, begins with a sundry of sounds that can likely be heard on any transistor radio—particularly before a signal becomes clear and is well broadcast. There’s static, radio waves in motion, and other eccentricities as the producer washes listeners through and through with ripples of sound. The cut’s devoid of any sort of rhythm (drums, percussion, etc.), vocals, and not too much else other than wavering sounds intermittently coursing beyond your skull. The effect is like transitioning into hyperspace with the stars rocketing past you as you begin shooting past them at warp speed.
“Drift”, on the contrary, is every bit as upbeat as “Transmission” is laid back—albeit it’s also equally as desultory as its counterpart is. Again, we’re not dealing with music so much as we’re dealing with sounds on this one. The synths are panned; there is a bass this time out and a rapid shuffling of drums that does manage to keep time in spurts, particularly with the bass gluing things together.
But to return to our motif of aims and ends of artists when they create, these songs are like runes. Some tracks are made for dancing or riding to, what would one do to these numbers? Dope would be the easy answer, and what an experience that would prove to be. But perhaps they’re simply for voyaging into the unknown, testing the limits of reason and sounds alike, and returning whole, refreshed and, somehow, for the better.
Try it and see how far you get.
