The pairing of Southern California beat maker Teebs with the UK’s Jackhigh has yielded some decidedly mellow sounds, as heard on this track from their collaborative seven-song EP, The Tropics. As Teebs & Jackhigh, the duo crafted “Clutch,” a song which seems to borrow more from Teebs’ penchant for ambiance than Jackhigh’s sample-heavy beats. The song’s atmosphere is laid thick as a London fog—allowing only particularly shimmering elements and low register rumbles to break through the swirling haze. It’s perplexing to think how that sound came about given the duo’s creative process; each song on The Tropics EP was crafted by manipulating a single sound file, instead of the usual arrangement of stems tweaked within computer software. Such unique approaches, sound experiments, and hand-painted art work by Teebs (shown above) make for one of the more interesting beat records to come out as of late.

Clutch