It was to my complete approval last month when I found out that dance music wizard Alex Metric would be releasing his fourth edition of the Ammunition EP series, which dropped this past Friday on October 9th. The first Ammunition EP was released in 2012 and features arguably one of my favorite modern dance tracks of all time: “Rave Weapon”. That track is exactly what it is described as – a pure dance floor destroyer that I used to use in many of my DJ sets to amp the crowd up. Subsequent editions of Ammunition, parts two and three, dropped shortly after that but it’s been about two years between Part Two and Part Three. Fear not, Part Four is full of goodies. Five of them, to be exact.
Released on Skrillex’s genre-defying OWSLA label, the EP features songs across House/Dance music sub-genres but is a collection of pure bliss. The lead single from Ammunition Part 4 is a fucking party starter. Called “Drum Machine” and featuring the New Sins (“Lights Down“), I was completely surprised to see what my Shazam had revealed during Christian Martin’s set at the Dirtybird BBQ in San Francisco last month. Christian Martin is known for playing funky, quirky Tech-House and while “Drum Machine” fit well into his set and got the booties moving, I was delighted to see this was an Alex Metric track which diverts from his typical Disco-House stylings. Speaking of “typical” Alex Metric music, I can’t say that any one song on the album particularly fits into what I know him for but I like that and it speaks loads to how talented a producer is when he can mix it up but still be on point. “Always There” is probably the most chilled-out song on the EP while “Elev8” featuring one of my other favorites, AMTRAC, goes pretty hard in what would be a great late night warehouse rave track. In the middle are a couple funky tracks, one being “Creeper” which is lighthearted, and the other being “Got Me Up” featuring the fantastic Knocks.
You can read a bit more about this EP and the title track “Drum Machine” over at Vice’s Noisey and I think we can all agree to give Alex Metric a round of applause for his effort. Two years ain’t nothin’ when you release music of this caliber.
*Note: “Got Me Up” and “Creeper” can’t be found on SoundCloud but you can purchase the whole EP on iTunes HERE*
*Double Note: Alex Metric released a September Mixtape and it’s fantastic. Listen to it*