One of the better events I’ve been to this year was the Bounce Up third anniversary party at Club Asia earlier this month. Betapack, a new collective featuring producer Broken Haze, played a very hard-hitting set in the early afternoon, one that featured a lot of songs popping up on the new TRD EP. This set, featuring three new songs, is a pummeling, metallic set — at times it can be downright suffocating, as even the voices that pop up beneath all the chrome sound straight from a factory line. What it feels like is the dance version of Yoshimi’s Tokyo Restricted Area, full of crushing sounds (and, on opener “Supra,” bits of traditional Japanese sounds) but put together in a way where it never hurts to listen to. Rather, Broken Haze makes the most of maximalism, everything smashing just right. Listen above.
