Steve Darko Makes Deep Sounds That Pound to the Bone on “Murda Beats”

Boston heavy-hitter Steve Darko is back to share more of his special take on four-on-the-floor sounds with the world. This time, he’s dropping some particularly beastly tunes on L.A.’s Perfect Driver Music. Both tracks, “Pucha” and “Murda Beats,” are equal parts progressive, deep, and dancey. But while the former goes big, the latter goes decidedly low.

Darko’s day job at iZotope evidently gives him an extra edge in the production department, allowing him to pump out sounds that are clean, deep, big, and tight. “Murda Beats” is truly a track that lives up to its name. A tech house beat rolls in piece by piece, held tightly under a lead-thick kick that packs a serious punch. Out of the machinery, a warm and groove-fueled bassline rises and carries a vocal hook in tow. Once the track locks in, though, it stays stripped down and absolutely body-moving.

Off-kilter sounds are peppered in rhythmically, playing against the warmth of the bass—which, at times, twist into a jagged acid line—while the vocal samples add a human reminder over the cold, locked beat. Darko picks moments to drive the entire track both closer and farther away from standard expectations of tech house. It’s the detailed attention, given equally to the small moments and the larger flow of the track, that really takes it to the next level. But most listeners won’t notice, as they’ll be too busy breaking a sweat.

“Like a lot of my music, I wanted ‘Murda Beats’ to start off groovy but fairly straightforward,” Darko tells Insomniac. “This leaves plenty of room for it to gradually evolve into a mind-fuck toward the end of the record. I’ve been playing it out for the past six months or so, and it always does its job. Stoked to release it with my friends at Perfect Driver. Hope you enjoy!”

Available March 16 via Perfect Driver Music.

Buy Steve Darko’s Murda Beats EP here.

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