Track of the Moment: Beba by PANTyRAiD

Now, before you question how I came across this duo, I was doing some… research on actual panty raids, mostly just when the first one occurred because I was… curious. However, PANTyRAiD (as it’s stylized), was one of many… other things that came… up during my search. Of course, even when I got down from my post-success euphoria these guys still… rubbed me the right way. However, I’ve been holding out on writing an article about them because I wanted to wait until Mark accepted my wager on me being able to make more than 5 sexual references in one article while still being on topic. I think I’ve won.

And I’m not just making these references on my own. The subtitle of their website is “Audio Fondling Your Girlfriend” (jokes on them, I don’t have a girlfriend! ...I’m so lonely…). The duo goes by PantyRaid (which I never understood the appeal of, but you can’t legally buy the kind of stuff I’m into, so…). And let’s not forget the female vocal sample in “Like That” and “Too Fine To Do Time”, or the cover of The Sauce and Superior, their album and EP respectively. Their entire image is built around making your downstairs area feel funny, both men and women. Well, that, and amazing, original beats.

A collaboration between Brooklyn-based MartyParty and LA-based Ooah that started up around 2009, give or take. They’ve done a few shows, but haven’t really put out much music in the 3 years they’ve been around; just their previously mentioned album and EP. Normally I’d expect a little more output from an electronic duo, but this is just a side project for both artists, so I’m not surprised. However, they have been doing shows recently, including an appearance at Sonic Bloom about a month ago, so hopefully they’ll be putting out some new stuff.

PantyRaid re-enacting of the first time me and Mark met

What’s interesting is the difference between their EP, which came out last year, and their first album, which came out in 2009. Their album features a more traditional, but unique, electronic sound, while the EP followed the current trends of electronic music and heavily influenced by dubstep. It’s still within their style (aka good) and focuses more on the lows than the wobble (as dubstep should), but it definitely has some modern influences to it. However, I’m going to focus on The Sauce, since there’s more there and it’s more interesting.

The Sauce focuses on melding a lot of different styles; dancehall, 2-step garage, electronica, glitch, and a little tiny bit of synthpop and chopped and screwed in occasionally comes in. If you don’t know what any of those genres sound like, I don’t blame you. I personally had to search through a rather long list of genres and figure out which ones applied, and I’m sure I missed a few, since there’s a lot of overlap and miniscule differences between subgenres and even genres. But don’t think that PantyRaid sounds like every other electronic act out there – they bring something new to the table. Like Squarepusher, these guys like to set up a rather standard melody made of loops for the first minute or 2, then break into some improvised cuts and interjections of synths. It’s hard to pick a particular song to share, but I’ll share “Beba”, which I love, and I feel shows off their influences and style the best. If you want more, you can stream their EP and album from their Soundcloud, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter. Oh, and if you like sexy sex, this article, or me, like Frogs on a Log on Facebook for updates on awesome music.