Gooey and expressive, twofold’s Black Armor is a climatic EP that doesn’t miss one bit. Each song is connected to some form of skin care, which is the central source of inspiration and where twofold poses the question, “The skin is the largest organ system on the body, and it protects you from the world around you. I wanted to ask: what happens when this protection is itself a vulnerability?” The opening track ‘Lightweight’, immediately drops you into a soundscape of gritty and thumping kicks that are built up with percussive drums and stabs that lead you through the little over 4 minute track. The track builds up with tension as multiple voice samples such as “pop, pop it”, “she’s cunt, she’s pussy,” echo alongside industrial swishes and kicks that rhythmically speaks to twofold’s dynamic reconstructed club production. 

After the EP’s first track, the album continues with heavy drums that seem to pause for split moments to cause momentum before you are met again with drumming. The sound layering of Black Armor is a testament to protection, especially in a world that has pressed the ‘GO’ button on a chaotic destruction that brings those marginalized by racialization and capitalism into greater harm. Most songs range around the 3 to 4 minute range, giving breadth to the concepts presented: an aggressive cry in trying to survive; between the mechanized broken beats in Filtration capulets, various toms in spatial cacophony, and the delayed, reverberating bass of Glyercin that evokes a cinematic quality that would sound amazing on any subwoofer, if given the chance.

Rounding out the end of the EP is the title track Black Armor. The kicks and drums are rougher, aided by the mechanical crash that drives the song. In moments of drops where a vocal sample cries out, it feels as if your feet are taken out from under you, and then you’re back into the adrenaline hard-hitting beats. The EP is  connective in its arrangement, where songs callback to one another without being too similar. Black Armor is an EP that is necessary in dance music – where lived experiences are expressed in the sonic, allowing us to feel, whether that’s through headphones or speakers, the urgency of the violence in the confusing and overwhelming world we are placed in. Once the last beat is echoed, Black Armor can alleviate any dance floor outside of the constraints of genre and importantly, it’s a fucking great album to listen to, too.