Something’s smoldering in the world of Randy Maples, aka Trandle, who’s among the most promising beat-wizards of local collective Raund Haus. Around official singles like the all-in “Glassface,” which Raund Haus dropped in January, he’s been quietly pumping out fresh takes on his developing sound—contemporary bass-music prisms refracting hazy memories of vintage rave, drum-and-bass, and IDM—on his SoundCloud page.
If “Glassface” was wide-awake and peaking, the tracks that followed are like nodding off to late-nineties hip-hop: the wobbly-turntable flip of Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip’s “Ill Vibe” and the jiggy-era dystopia of “Smokedout.” Now, on “Smoke Loops,” which drops on Spotify and elsewhere tomorrow, Trandle keeps the stoned vibe simmering but converts hip-hop to jazzy soul-hop, with a distinct old-school Stones Throw Records feel. Short and sweet, the relentless knock-kneed groove houses all kinds of interior activity and a little rave siren like a hole in a helium balloon. It all whispers of “upcoming full-length,” Trandle’s first since his 2017 debut. We’re ready.
