- For an artist as boldly experimental as Paul Dickow, Tuff Life might at first seem too safe. Even next to his previous Strategy records for Endless Flight, these tracks are more muscular and straightforward, placating directly to club soundsystems. "Juice Riff" has a punchy, borderline catchy bassline and a funky acid sequence that emerges in the last quarter, while the title track and "For Those Who Came Before" both use melodic hooks in their bouncy 4/4s. It wouldn't be Strategy without some out-there sounds, but Tuff Life has few of the dub touches in, say, 2013's "Return From The Stars" and is more clear-headed than this year's Spindrift EP. Dickow instead offers four dance floor bangers set slightly askew.
The energy here is more in line with 2014's Pressure Wassure (minus the UK hardcore nods), plus a goofy sensibility. "Danse Du Gibbon" just about explains itself in the title, all mischievous synth squiggles and swinging rhythms. It builds to nearly comical levels of revelry, but the rest of Tuff Life isn't too far off. Even the serious synth loop in "For Those Who Came Before" is set over a hard-bouncing rhythm and jittering background samples. All the percussive elements comprising "Juice Riff" fire in rigid, disjointed patterns, before booming sub frequencies and filtered stabs fill in the gaps of the jaunty groove. This may be the most unabashedly fun record Dickow has released in some years, but it's clearly on his own terms.
TracklistA1 Tuff Life
A2 Danse Du Gibbon
B1 For Those Who Came Before
B2 Juice Riff