For a dance music producer, Anthony Naples has all the time made albums with unusually broad attraction—the sort that even your coworker who went to a 4 Tet present as soon as may recognize. Every LP has some form of unifying theme or inspiration, like ’90s downtempo on Orbs, nighttime radio on Fog FM, or the stunning inclusion of dwell devices on Chameleon, an experiment in writing music, reasonably than producing it. Scanners stands out for its lack of context or backstory. Even the accompanying observe on Bandcamp merely says that it options “ten new songs.” The New York artist’s sixth album is his most simple but: ten new songs certainly, exploring a delicate and spacious tackle dance music with polished surfaces and simply the correct amount of melody. No experiments, no interludes, no left turns, but it really works from entrance to again almost in addition to any of his extra artsy data.
It’s instructive that Naples makes use of the phrases “songs” reasonably than “tracks.” Scanners is uniform—every monitor has the identical construction and is available in at a median of round six minutes—however Naples approaches all of them with a songwriterly contact, as on the pumping “Evening.” On the floor, “Evening” is nearly tribal home, that almost all useful of subgenres, with a pots-and-pans drum sample that strikes horizontally like a crab scuttling throughout the sand. However there’s a lot extra happening beneath, together with a uneven melody that weaves round dramatic chord stabs, and a liberal software of results that makes the tracks really feel dwell. A texture is all the time altering, the filter envelope is all the time on the transfer. A sound not often stays the identical for various bars in Naples’ music.
Relating to sound, Scanners is one in every of Naples’ supplest data. The tracks really feel unusually roomy; the massive kick drums are EQ’d method down, in order that they principally occupy the bottom frequencies. That leaves the midrange open for squelchy acid-style basslines and clay-putty chords on “Ampere,” or fuzzed-out leads on “Mushy”—which lands someplace between trance and electroclash—or jaunty keyboards on the cutesy “Any person.” That one jogs my memory of previous tracks like “Mad Disrespect” or “Abrazo,” however with a newfound humorousness. There’s a stage of exaggeration in the best way the piano twinkles, stretches, and wobbles that jogs my memory of artists on the traditional minimal label Perlon (say, Markus Nikolai).
The hulking rhythm part, which is Scanners’ most trendy contact, betrays what is definitely a number of the most intricate materials in Naples’ discography. There’s an consideration to element and stylish sound design that feels very late ’00s—once more, Perlon. The opening title monitor sounds rather a lot like Huerco S.’s implausible 2024 mnml throwback LP underneath the alias Loidis—glossy and vaguely iridescent, with a sound that resembles nothing in the actual world but brings to thoughts snatches of luxurious. Assume a cocktail bar, or a darkish, neon-lit lounge, a portal to the dance music universe of the previous when cool, globally influential events occurred on Monday nights within the Meatpacking District as an alternative of warehouses in Maspeth and Ridgewood. From the quirky piano on “Any person” to the punchy, minimalist home of “Compact,” this music will both learn as timeless or retro, relying on how lengthy you’ve been within the sport. Both method, it hits.
