There are electronic producers solely interested in offering an antidote to readily available pop music, then there are those who'd rather take a chance reflecting contemporary radio sounds in their own image. Much in the same way that Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker" mined late-1990s hip-hop and R&B to make cruising in the California sun sound more like pole dancing on its surface, anonymous producer SOPHIE refracts EDM, trap, and chirpy K-pop through a prism of funhouse mirrors. The Londoner's latest dispatch skews even further to the left of his breakout "Bipp", leaving "Hard" stranded somewhere between the UK garage perversions of "Do You Know Squarepusher" and Katy Perry's über-au courant "This is How We Do".

As its title implies, "Hard" is cold and jagged in comparison to previous singles—"Lemonade", the A-side of SOPHIE's new Numbers 12", is far more sugary and gelatinous with its giddy dislocations. For all of its shuddering, metallic beats and razor-sharp sawtooth synths, though, "Hard" gleams with intensity when the light hits it just right. Crystalline bells occasionally add a hint of sparkle, and just before the flurry of mutated meta-pop wraps up, a set of scampering trance synths swell into the mix as a cheeky reminder that—even when sounding his most serious—SOPHIE always wants to have fun with us.

Sophie: "Hard" (via SoundCloud)

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