A new generation of Baltimore club producers is putting their spin on the genre’s classic combo of fast, rugged breaks, call-and-response vocals, and stuttering sample chops of whatever’s fun. Artists like SDOT, CalvoMusic, Jialing, and Kade Young have made some of my favorite dance music of the past few years, plugging their city’s raw bounce into tracks with contemporary, detailed production and creative sound selection. “Leswerk,” a highlight from Kade’s new EP Gravity, is one of few Baltimore club tracks I would call Villalobos-ian. As you’d expect, it’s pretty minimal and percussion-driven. But the percussion is weird: Kade uses pitched, metallic drums to emulate chord stabs, plus lots of clicky, modulated samples—including a water droplet. Beneath a subtly swirling vocal clip (“Let’s work!”), Kade builds up the fundamentals, deftly arranging claps, hats, and thwacks and over those dependable kicks to lead into a breakdown. Baltimore club has always had an anything-goes attitude toward its flips and songwriting; Kade shows how far it can go while still remaining recognizable.
