WINGZ & FANGZ

The two-sided debut album from breakout riddim producer beastboi suffers from the same overblown underground-dubstep stylistics that pushed him to prominence in the scene.

Structurally, "WINGZ & FANGZ" is great. As aforementioned, it's split into two discs, named appropriately for the style they aim for. Where "WINGZ" is largely melodic, clubby house, "FANGZ" is destructive and unrelenting dubstep. And so, going into the album, expectations are laid out right from the beginning — no surprises, no strings attached, nothing. Structurally, "WINGZ & FANGZ" is a great showing from beastboi. A good start, to be sure, and a good start that extrapolates into the "WINGZ" section itself. beastboi does a brilliant job with his synthwork and sound production in the former half of the record, employing wonderfully bouncy beats, sparkling synths, a couple of nice vocals, and plenty of playful elements thrown into each mix that make each track a total bop. There's no question that "WINGZ" is a fantastic section in of itself, bringing strong production motifs and high-quality tracks to the table and setting a high precedent for the second half, "FANGZ". Surely, after such a good melodic section, the heavy section would be just as good, right? Yeah, no, the fun stops there. "FANGZ" is an unfortunate amalgamation of pretentious riddim growls and unnecessarily egregious vocal sampling — which was the weak point of "WINGZ", I'd say, but proves to be an active vice for  "FANGZ" — condensing into a dumpster fire of a second movement. What irritates me the most about "FANGZ" is its sheer messiness, as if beastboi tried to go as hard as possible, lapsed into loud sustain purgatory and ended up with far too much sound on his hands. Almost every drop in "FANGZ" switches up every two seconds and can never seem to settle on one cohesive idea, and when paired with the loud mixdowns and overenthusiastic sampling, the latter half of this record begins to become obnoxious quite quickly. Heaviness is all well and done but "FANGZ" simply has far too much substance and no idea what to do with all of that substance, and whilst I'm all for brash basswork and free sampling, beastboi does it to the point of utter sonic chaos.

I'm definitely not a fan of beastboi's sampling style, too, which doesn't do him any favours. And whilst I loved "WINGZ", the entire record doesn't live up to the standards beastboi seems to have as a beloved producer in underground bass music circles. Ultimately, "WINGZ & FANGZ" kicks off really well in the first disc "WINGZ", but, to me, is ruined by its heavier cousin in the latter disc.