PC Music head boss A. G. Cook has been putting in a lot of work lately — producing for Charli XCX and Jónsi, remixing 100 gecs and Caroline Polachek. But Cook hasn’t released any music under his own name since his 2019 single “Lifeline,” a collaboration with Polachek. Today, though, Cook has dropped a new record under a completely different name. Under the alias DJ Lifeline — presumably named after that 2019 single — Cook just released a new five-track EP called Airhorn.
Airhorn came out without warning last night; Cook tweeted that he’d just released it as a Bandcamp exclusive. He also said that he’s donating all proceeds to the Movement For Black Lives. It’s the first thing he’s released under the DJ Lifeline name, but that’s a classic dance-music move — putting out semi-obscure music under a bunch of different monikers. And as it happens, the music on Airhorn is very much indebted to classic dance music.
The five tracks on Airhorn all have the giddy bright-plastic sugar-rush energy that we’ve come to expect from all things PC Music-related. But where many of Cook’s tracks sound like the pop music that you’d hear on the radio in some impossible future, the Airhorn tracks dig deeper into past dance-music movements: Happy hardcore, drum ‘n’ bass, acid house. There’s even some downright pretty chillout-tent stuff on there. Stream the EP below.
You can buy the Airhorn EP at Bandcamp.