4 out of 5

Label: Nomark

Produced by: Amon Tobin, Patric Schmidt

Depending on who you favor out of this duo, the Two Fingers / Muadeep mash Cronos will lean you towards the slightly more jungle tracks – TF, aka Amon Tobin – or those that go heavy on the dancefloor beat, which is moreso Muadeep’s (Patrik Schmidt) sound. Or maybe you like both, which I imagine is the best deal.

While Cronos’ is much more dominated by Schmidt’s speaker-shattering bass groove, certainly that’s not a sound foreign to Tobin, and especially under his hip-hop leaning Two Fingers guise. That said, as the album leans a bit more towards a standardized beat throughout, the seven tracks can be said to have a bit more of a linear focus than, honestly, either artist necessarily favors, as though they each encouraged the other to stay within some borders. If there’s a criticism here, it’s that: while each track either has an instantly head-bobbing hook or earns its way to one, the core beat sound and general pace is fairly consistent, washing away much sense of ebb and flow over the course of things. However, the duo thus smartly keeps the experience short: the seven tracks never exceed much more than four minutes, and even if the focus is on a clubby vibe, there’s not much time spent strictly letting the beat ride – we’re always adding in some percussion; some ambience. And the best moments – opener Blood Moon, the looser Lost Gods – tend to combine the two.

But those other moments are only slightly lesser, either because of my taste preferences liking more of an IDM / jungle hook, or because some of the tracks feel just less dense overall.

While I think I was surprised at how straightforward danceable this stuff is, it proves to be an ideal teamup for that very reason: Muadeep has an ambient bent that’s curved back towards bass beats; Tobin has been all over the place with experimental stuff via various pseudonyms, and it’s wild to hear him back just making us boogie. The flourishes each artist presumably added here, and the way they also maybe restrained each other, makes for some wildly impressive – but also super accessible and fun – beats.