It’s a known fact that sound waves travel differently underwater, bending and elongating as tides drift and pressure fluctuates, and it seems that award-winning Cleveland DJ Corey Grand is keen to imagine what kinds of sonic possibilities this phenomena might offer on his new single, “Water.”
A down-tuned thumb piano riff sinks slowly through the water like a pair of shell-toe Adidas thrown overboard and a syrupy g-funk lead floats above the surface on cool r’n’b chords, airy like sea spray. As the track deepens, Grand deploys bursts of rhythmic footwork figures that deflect off into sharply aberrant trajectories away from the beat’s placid calm.Like sonar pulses, blind to the depths and expanse of the oceanic space around them, these individual sounds don’t so much outline the physical structures of groove so much as obliquely imply its basic shape.
But then suddenly things change. Each of these elements come together in a riot of kinesis, flashing like a silvery cyclone of fish swimming in unison, only to scatter once again into their respective berths, slouching seaward with salty skin.
Corey’s “Water’ video features a pink blob stuck in the Tron arcade machine, so there’s that, too. Watch it here.
