Nearly a year ago, Idris Elba wielded an industrial hip-hop/house hybrid, “Ballie,” on the crowd assembled at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival‘s Yuma stage. The scorching, KAH-LO-assisted crossover charted its course to streaming platforms shortly thereafter, and has since laid re-imaginatively untouched—until now, that is.
It seems that anything Gary Richards, aka Destructo, touches grows more potent, and the electro and house maverick’s take on “Ballie” feels one of the freshest examples of this stylistic truth. Destructo retrotfits “Ballie” with an alternative, snare-driven house kick, and adds airy lifts to the song’s arches, amplifying their climactic character. Additional interspersed bass and more emphatic synth work heighten the sonic drama of “Ballie,” re-envisioned through Destructo’s forward thinking lens.
Photo credit: Friendship