Rusko – KAPOW EP

Posted by Spice on November 5, 2012

And thus begins Rusko’s pledge to release all of his music for free in the wake of some very public complications with Mad Decent. Kudos to the dubstep don — always something of a rabble-rouser in the electronic music community — for taking an aggressive stand and choosing to operate outside of the system. KAPOW comes on the heels of Rusko’s rather disappointing collaboration with Cypress Hill and navigates us back to more familiar territory. However, this isn’t his best effort. There’s a funky, fizzy vibe to these tracks that at times gives fresh life to those trademark glitchy womps and wobbles (“Yeah”) but at others seems unfocused and chaotic (“Booyakasha”). The latter two tracks are fresh and bouncy — he even toys with a rollicking moombah bassline on “Like This” — but lack the measure of oomph that would otherwise take this EP to the next level. (Okay, to be fair, I’m also automatically comparing this to Bassnectar’s recent Freestyle EP, and that was a brilliant mind-melt that totally blows this out of the water.) This is a 6.5/10. Possibly a 7.

Fortunately, KAPOW is free if you “pay” with a tweet/Facebook status or sign up for Rusko’s newsletter, so there’s not really any reason not to download it. And his goal of self-promoting his music without label assistance is certainly worth supporting; if he is successful, it will be a clear indication that times are officially changing.

Download Free: Rusko – KAPOW EP