Cube

"Lucky Numbers & True Weight, the fourth full-length by the New York City artist Cube, continues to push to the surface what has been hiding in plain sight all along: the artist’s ability to write memorable songs that synthesize elements from a variety of left-field genres into its own sonic world. The grit of noise; the ammo splay of digital hardcore; the experimentation of footwork; the rigor of industrial and techno; all of this exists here on more or less equal footing. These musical languages are deployed by the artist—real name: Adam Keith—as a means of sustaining an atmosphere, both uneasy and ecstatic, that plays out through the duration of the project.

"There is a sense of contemporary hard-boiled grit here, like this music was meant to accompany a grubby pawed swipe on a gambling app or the action at a smoke-logged off-track betting operation. 'Reverse Cowboy' is borderline-anthemic beat punk done up in an atemporal style, somewhere between The Normal and The Prodigy. The interlude 'Middle Man' lurches like a drunk noise kid at a warehouse show. 'New Stare' is goth DJ Nate. It’s music for both latent rockers and latent ravers, for a new era of cross-pollination.

"If this record conjures contemporary technology, it is through a soiled patina. In the bowels of the city and far away from any techno-utopian ideals, Lucky Numbers & True Weight plays. It’s the soundtrack to smudged screens and fried Bluetooth speakers; to shadowy discotheques and corrupt sports bars. It’s a strobe at dawn, a half-drunk hard seltzer, a failed parlay. It’s damaged and addictive and also kind of pop. It’s the clear next step from an artist who has been sharpening his style for well over a decade." – John Chiaverina