Keys N Krates - Cura

Keys N Krates
Cura
2018
Spotify

I had to go back and make sure i was reading this right, Cura is the debut record from electronic trio Keys N Krates. I feel like I've seen them in one way or another about ten times, popping up at clubs, festivals or damn near anywhere else. It's always heavy on the dub-step, no surprise being signed to Aoji's Dim Mak label. However Cura doesn't go full dub step like you would expect, it's a welcome shift. Instead the album feels rich and diverse borrowing from styles across the electronic spectrum. It can't be an electronic album without Troy Lanez these days so he makes his appearance on track two "Music to My Ears". Tory usually brings it so I understand why so many Djs reach out to him, but Jesus Christ at this point it's like you can't make an album without having him involved at some point. What I really like on this album is that Keys N Krates found a way to make a dub-step sound work outside of a dub-step show. You expect aggressive hard beats and big drops, but they allow the music to breathe on the first few tracks, punctuating their beats with effervescent old school sounds rather pure electronics. You usually don't expect to hear soul singing on a Keys N Krates track, but they find a way to blend it into their sound on tracks like : Do What U Do" making them so smooth. The slickness of this album is really unexpected. "Glitter" has this super smooth style that just sweeps up up in it and doesn't let you go.

However, dub-step faithful don't be too concerned because on "Flute Loop" we get the genre back at it's dubsteppiest. It's not always a bad thing though like on "Something Wonderful" where the style is fused into this really trippy but fun track. They get into a line of music and then meander there a little, keeping a point but not forcing a track to move when it isn't time. There is just a ton of patience on this record yet it still has some big room potential. It's just welcome to hear Keys N Krates sounding more like Autograf then their label head Steve Aoki. The album also gets you pretty amped for what they may do at their recently announced world headlining tour since most of what they have done live is just DJ sets. At only 26 minutes Keys N Krates have really packed some tremendous music into a short period of time. Give this one a listen, you may just be banging it before you know it.

8.0 out of 10