Crushed and Murdered

“Gangsta of War” is the perfect intro to a tape that essentially sounds like a secret early recording made by a now-well-known Warp Records project. Or it could be Art of Noise doing its best imitation of gangsta rap. The hypnotic yet syncopated drum-machine-generated beats, punctuated by bass and urgent synth tones, especially on “Under Slide,” give off a sense of being inside Grand Theft Auto, where you reach a secret area haunted by a sense of lurking menace. If you didn’t know better, you’d think Aphex Twin was behind this recording — that is, if it didn’t have that unmistakable veneer of lo-fi fuzzying the music’s edges. Crushed and Murdered has created a sound that would complement Larry Clark imagery or John Moritsugu end credits gone dark.