Goff's Pick of the Week- Glass Swords by Rustie

September already? And here I thought it was still summer. Isn’t it strange how the time goes by, you blink and it slips right past you, like a slinky sliding down the steps under your feet. Yeah that was a simile, a little rusty perhaps? Maybe. Anyway that brings me to my first pick of the week in a while, what better band than Rustie, and what better album to dust the cobwebs off than Glass Swords. 

Rustie is a one man show, and I mean that in more way than one. While it is indeed true that the music is made by one guy, it is also listened to by one guy, and that guy happens to be you.  Whether you are driving along in your car, or if you are listening at home, if you are listening to Glass Swords you are most certainly not a dance party. Fret not though, Rustie will be your friend, he has made a special album just for you, you enjoyer of the mechanical whir, you who dances with laser beam sounds. Now all kidding aside I enjoy a good piece of introspective dance music, but Glass Swords is far more dance and far less introspection than I am used to. As someone who found himself tapping his toe to Oneotrix Point Never, Glass Swords was a blast to listen to, the kind of good time that is accompanied by hip gyrations and painful to watch limb flailing. At the same time though Rustie never falls into the trap of heavy beats and minimal melody to get the listener off of their feet. Glass Swords offers an impressive collection of tracks that wouldn’t fail to impressive fans of music as diverse as Skrillex and Burial, Rustie strikes an impressive balance between the ephemeral high of dance and the more subtle emotions of longing and isolation.

Rustie’s ability to craft such songs comes from his eclectic sense of style. Where many tune makers, especially people who produce for rappers, have large record collections that they purvey continuously trying to match up a rappers style with the sound, I would imagine that Rustie could take just about any tune and match it with any rapper. That’s not to say that Rustie’s style, or more accurately the style that is represented on Glass Swords, would sound good under rap, the point I’m making is that if you are a song in Rustie’s collection, prepare to be cut up beyond recognition. Rustie molds his samples into his own sound; the style throughout Glass Swords is at the same time unique but distinctly Rustie’s own. His ability to make sleek and deliberately cool tracks has yielded an album full of… you guessed it, sleek and deliberately cool tracks. Rustie seems very self aware as an artist, as evidenced by the pacing of Glass Swords. The earlier tracks serve as a warm up, building to a climax marked by some of the best tracks on the album. Being able to identify which tracks are the tightest, while it may seem like an obvious necessity it is a skill some producers lack, but Glass Swords is a well balanced album clearly takes the listener from point A to point B.

It is nice too to hear a producer who is so rooted in the now of music. Whereas someone like Flying Lotus, or anyone on the Brainfeeder label for that matter are so forward looking, and other producers are so rooted in the sampling of jazz (I’m looking at you rap industry). In a world so obsessed with dub-step, whether it be the frat bro’s who love it or… everyone else, it is refreshing to hear an up and coming producer just go for something completely different, make it their own, and succeed on so many levels.