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Standout Track: No. 2, “Tonight.” Its guillotine-sharp booms cut through neon synthesizers, while members Mick Marx and Sur Jazz court ladies in the club. After meeting in Baltimore, the duo developed a sweet tooth for dubstep. Now they’re trying to start fires in a town known for being more reserved than its Northern neighbor. “I felt like the music scene here was a little more conservative versus the Baltimore scene,” says Marx. “It’s hard to get a crowd moving unless they know your music.”
Musical Motivation: The duo revisits big-room, sing-along hip-hop without the rampant Pitchfork sampling. Sometimes, that means Beyond Modern can meander into Flo Rida synth fluff. Yet they think D.C. is warming up to their ideas. “D.C. is still getting used to this sound, but they made a major step towards the right direction with the Trillectro festival that we were a part of,” says Jazz. “So we felt like now was the best time [to put out music].”
Stolen Ideas: This EP, Beyond Modern’s second, was the product of a desire to crank something out right now, before the pair drops its debut full-length next year. But it follows a dormant period for Marx. “I stopped rapping for a while because I was doing all my shit in a dormitory, and all of my equipment got stolen,” he says.
