Clouds

Scottish duo Clouds have made fans of Boys Noize and the Chemical Brothers, among others, and their latest EP, Man Out of Dubs, is a bit like being swallowed by sandpaper yet emerging intact. If you took all the drops from Proxy songs, lengthened them considerably and looped them infinitely, you'd have Man Out of Dubs. The EP is a mangled, robot dystopia, a breakdown of the natural presented through rugged techno. "Tropical Fuck" runs on a leaden build, gaining strength with scratching hi-hat and warped vocals that have the grind of a saw. The bruised, metallic feedback on "Phantom Female" is an aggressive auditory breakdown akin to Transformers on speed. The six-track EP is solid, though the four original tracks have a great deal more footing than the two remixes rounding out the album. "Drone Function (Divvorce Remix)" simply takes the grimy, crushing synths of the original and inverts them for the remix — a touch uninspired, if anything, but a brazen EP on the whole.