Addison Groove: “Elevator”

Released last week via Chloe Robinson’s Pretty Weird label, the latest EP from Addison Groove—the Bristol producer who helped usher Chicago footwork into the world of UK bass via songs like “Footcrab”—contains two excellent tracks in his typical style. Eh Wut’s B-side, “Elevator,” is a thrill ride that descends from a lineage of iconic tracks like “Percolator,” issuing an inexorable command to move your body right now. Its most crucial update comes from its vocal sample: While some instructional party starters beat their mantra via unchanging, brute force repetition, the hook of “Elevator”—“elevator up and down”— is constantly being chopped and re-shuffled. The vocals duck and weave between a throbbing kick and clicking percussion, accented by little details like purring synth pads and the chiming elevator noise that goes off every few bars. In the track’s breakdown, the galloping polyrhythm is stripped back to just a 4/4 kick with a cavernous application of reverb; the elevator dings speed up faster and faster, creating a tower of terror in the pit of your stomach until you arrive at your floor and snap back into the groove.