Freaks

• Genre: Tech-House

About

Justin Harris & Luke Solomon, the duo behind Freaks, describe their sound as part Kraftwerk, part Green Velvet, part George Clinton and just a dash of Basement Jaxx. Walking the line between quirky and commercial, the Freaks like to mess with traditional house formats, chopping up Latin riffs into mechanical loops, layering vocodered rodent sounds into sparse blip-hop-house beats and generally doing their best to bring a creative edge to what they see as a stale house sound. They have released three albums -- The Beat Diaries, Meanwhile Back At The Disco and The Man Who Lived Underground , along with other remixes and singles on their Music For Freaks label. From mellow electro grooves to down and dirty house, the Freaks' sound is brutal but funky-sexy, hard-hitting but minimalist.

- Nicholas Baker