Philadelphia, PA-based production duo Hooded Leaders are comprised of two grizzled music scene veterans PLEASE and RedHat, both of whom have been mainstays in Philadelphia’s underground electronic music scenes. And with their collaboration the duo of PLEASE and RedHat are actively trying to bring their unique sound, which possesses elements of Chopped and Screwed hip-hop and twitchy, bass-heavy dance music to the masses.
The first single “The Night” off their soon-to-released full-length effort, Casting Circle is an inventive and incredible reworking of Corona‘s house music classic “Rhythm of the Night,” which employs a super slowed down and chopped up sample of the source material’s hook paired with ominously swirling electronics, tweeter and woofer rattling bass, layers of glitchy and cascading synths, and distorted drums to create a sound that feels and sounds post-apocalyptic and grimy, while being incredibly contemporary and absolutely club rocking.
The official video directed by Matt Larsen of Knowledge Knights is set in a relatively near future in which people can get drugs from a cell phone app, and starts off with a woman creating a concoction for a secretive, underground, fetish rave, which we see. We’re then taken to a creepy smoke-filled seance in which, sex and evil spirits are conjured simultaneously. The video emphasizes the song’s murky ominousness.
