It’s extremely difficult to not reach for the Rustie comparison once the drop hits on Barcelona-bred producer Alizzz‘s “In Chains.” The track is indebted heavily to the maximalist approach of making futuristic, crowd-pleasing beats, starting with a glitchy, hair-raising synth chord before tearing off into a half-time stomp. Gradually, Alizzz fills his tune bit by bit with mournful horn blasts, unfiltered snare strikes, and a female vocal which is lost underneath the anthemic chords shouting above it. Like Rustie, there’s a sweetness to all of the polyrhythmic insanity, both in its melancholy chord progressions and the way Alizzz pushes his nocturnal ingredients out of the fog and into the red. (And that’s not even getting to the synth solo.) Alizzz’s first record for Arkestra, a four-track effort called Whoa!, will be released on June 11.

In Chains