There’s nothing like dance tracks with sass. “Smoke” from flirty800’s new Strip EP has it in spades.
The New York-based producer (real name Wade Harley Harris) is carved into the bedrock of the metropolis’s queer club culture. Venues like Basement and Paragon, long-time playgrounds for the buff fellow with countless nights spent dancing and DJing well into the morning.
Fashion is also a major piece of the flirty800 puzzle. He’s spun at Fashion Week-affiliated events, afterparties for Charli XCX and Troye Sivan, Jean Paul Gaultier’s NYFW rave and more. If you drew a Venn diagram of New York’s rampant fashion scene and queer nightlife, flirty800 would be sitting smack bang in the middle.
The Strip EP (out through b4) is straight party. “Smoke” serves as the project’s sleazy opening statement. Beginning with a muffled kick that reminds me of cops serving a search warrant, the producer soon introduces emergency service-esque sirens, click-clack drums, and crucially, a Brazilian vocal sample that’s very hard to forget. Together, these sounds give the track a tripped-out and loopy feel, dragging you further and further in (“fuma, fuma, fuma”). Equal parts polished and gritty, like the concrete floors it’s best heard on.
