Pitchfork

Howlermonkey has been living on the beat quite a bit lately, remixing rapper Wiz Khalifa and electro-punks Heartsrevolution (on his MySpace) when not compiling a Crystal Castles "omnibus mix". Dropping the "DJ" from his name and adding vocalist Rebecca Bortman, multi-instrumentalist Andres Ortiz Ferrare, and rotating member Matt McDermat, Pittsburgh's David Litvin moves Howlermonkey past remixes with "Life on the Beat Part 1 & 2", a lithe electronic track with some of the alien spookiness of the Knife, spacey retro-futurist synths that are part Jan Hammer, part Crystal Castles, and at the center, a warm, free-falling melody and pattering, occasionally polyrhythmic percussion. The first half of the song features Bortman's understated vocal. "Why you gotta leave me all alone, pent-up?" she murmurs, just as guitar-like synth rockets in beneath her.

A low rubbery bass drum percolates beneath the opening verse, beset from both sides by tropical drum sounds; the latter remains as a heavy kick drum takes over halfway through. From there, the track carries on without words, 8-bit keyboard plinks glinting out from some lower, sustained synth notes. Instruments slowly drop out of the mix, and the chugging, guitar-like synth is all that's left by the end. Half reflective song fragment, half mid-tempo dance instrumental, "Life on the Beat Part 1 & 2" is an ambitious track that can make feeling "pent-up" sound both gut-wrenching and hip-swiveling. Wait until Howlermonkey gets loose.