Feature photo: Tessa Paisan.

In the middle of a bustling live road season and right in the dead heat of summer, PEEKABOO takes the wheel on his new single “Bumpy Road.” The eerie dubstep cut, out now on NIGHTMODE, is winding its way along the eighth season of releases for the Los Angeles imprint.

Uncannily sinister and disturbingly hypnotic, “Bumpy Road” deserves to live in its own category of dubstep. The track kicks off with hypnotic whistle tones and cascading wind chimes, both of which feed into one another to give off a sense of terror in the best way possible. Once the thick thud of the kick sets it, the main melodic motif finds a way to hit even harder with the addition of squeaky spring eighth notes, rattling 808 hits, and syncopated accents.

About midway through, a moment of reprieve is offered in the breakdown before the ungodly groove tops for a second lap. This time, PEEKABOO smashes the accelerator with skidding synth phrases and tripped-out layers that drive the number into complete and utter insanity. The track still carries that trademark PEEKABOO steez, but he’s found a way to take the “wow factor” to a level that almost doesn’t seem fair to anyone else making beats.

“This was one of the most fun songs I’ve worked on. It has this strange rhythm and melody that you can sing back to, which is somewhat hypnotic and has those classic hip hop drums to back it up. In the second drop, things take a quick turn into a darker vibe, giving the drop more aggression to basically emulate when you’re feeling HAPPY and ANGRY at the same time, going through what you would call a ‘Bumpy Road.’ I wanted this track to stand out a little bit more from my usual stuff as I can’t really compare it to anything else that I’ve done.”
— PEEKABOO

From hallucinogenic soundscapes to mind-gnawing festival beats, PEEKABOO’s music never ceases to sneak up on you—making the Detriot native’s moniker feel more relevant than ever. His unique take on bass music has seen him rack up millions of plays across numerous releases, taking dubstep heads on a never-ending detour through his deranged frame of mind. He’s taken the genre into fresh directions dozens of times, counting off tracks like his daze-inducing “Here With Me,” the synapse-bending REZZ collab on her Spiral album, and the rave-powered “POWA” with Zeds Dead.

On his first outing with NIGHTMODE, PEEKABOO jumps entirely out of the line of sight to create a track that is unlike anything that has come before it. Stream “Bumpy Road” on your preferred platform now.