With speaker-shattering bass swells with the force to clock in on the Richter-scale, the world Barny Fletcher invites us into is the comic book garishness and Slim Shady-esque hyperreality. Basking in movement and stasis, “Crops” will have you tripping over the beat at a whiplash-inducing pace. It is at once ultra-modern, at the very edge of hip-hop and its spawn of microgenres, which still standing firmly in old-school sensibilities.
There is very little wonder Fletcher makes neurotic lunges at sounds like a kid in a candy shop when you consider his growing up in the calmer landscapes of Somerset. Naturally, a little chaos was needed – and Barney Fletcher is the one to bring it.
What’s more is the single comes with a fitting, apocryphal origin story: “I wrote 'Crops' for a project that’s coming out next year. It’s dark and muddy. The beat comes from a memory stick which I found afloat on a swamp. If you listen closely you can still hear the swamp water. But yeah, this song is like if I were a parent and had a really ugly kid but loved it to death anyway. I hope this song can be your ugly kid too. We can have joint custody.”
