Dirty Loops
Loopified
Reviewed by: Ari Roth
Dirty Loops make music that is too much. The thrill of indulgence, that sugary, mindless rush of hyperactivity, blinding pop hooks, machine-like technical virtuosity, hypercompression, slap bass. Inhumanly tight rhythms ricochet off the walls, candyfloss disco synths explode everywhere, vocal melisma runs go on for about five times too long. Essentially none of the styles mined on their debut album, Loopified, are new, and almost all of them were firmly in place and codified by the mid-80s, but there’s something about the sheer manic maximalism with which they’re put together that feels hypermodern.
If this sounds like mixed praise, well, it is. There’s a fine line between obnoxious overindulgence and sheer euphoria, and Dirty Loops unashamedly run roughshod back and forth over that line over and over. There is also absolutely nothing cool about it: prog, jazz funk and trance pop were never and will never be remotely hip. It’s an exhausting listen, and definitely not always successful. When they try to exercise restraint, as on the syrupy mid-album ballad “It Hurts” or the ill-advised cover of already-unbearable Avicii megahit “Wake Me Up” they unambiguously fail. On “Die For You” they ape stadium EDM’s sidechained walls of synths, and while their arrival is thrilling the first time around, it begins to grate by the time the song is over.
But when it is successful, it’s often delightfully so. “Sayonara Love” allows just enough empty space to conjure up an honest-to-goodness groove, rather than a technically brilliant series of syncopations. You can dance to it and not risk tripping over your feet. The hooks resonate, there’s a lovely, smart chord change at the end of the chorus, and it’s just fun to listen to on a purely visceral level. “Accidentally In Love” mixes in Stevie Wonder harmonicas, new jack swing bounce, proggy fills and dizzying dynamics into a knowingly cluttered arrangement that still manages to make you feel good. “The Way She Walks” is even better, a flat out great pop song that not even a drum solo can ruin. Dirty Loops close in style with “Roller Coaster”, an aptly-named R&B tune complete with brassy horns and a rapid-fire falsetto chorus.
At its finest, Loopified reminds me a little of Rustie’s Glass Swords, a purely electronic dance album that drew from many of the same stylistic reference points but with much greater success, managing to distill excess into pure potent pleasure. Dirty Loops are not yet capable of this, too enamored of their own technical capacity and too willing to dive so deep into decadence that it ceases to provide any enjoyment. Still, when they get it right, the results are wonderful and often extremely enjoyable. It all adds up to an album comprised entirely of extremes, that ultimately cancel each other out. It’s not a great record, nor a terrible record – it’s both. It’s musical junk food: you know it’s bad for you, but you can’t resist just one more song.
Rating: 
