Alli Logout and Margo XS might seem to occupy opposite sides of the cultural spectrum. The former is the frontperson for New Orleans-based electronic post-queercore band Special Interest, a firecracker performer who can channel fury and sexuality onstage like few of their punk peers (I once saw them javelin a broken mic stand into a festival crowd with terrifying velocity). The latter is one of pop music’s rising producers, with a 2026 Grammy nomination for her work on Zara Larsson’s girlie-pop juggernaut “Midnight Sun,” and the executive producer of Kim Petras’ most recent album and subsequent club rebrand. Logout and Margo XS have been making grimy, sexy, explosive dance music under the name deBasement since 2024, and on their second EP, HARDBODY, instead of trying to simply fuse the sounds of their respective projects, they’ve created a record that speaks more broadly to their shared affinities—namely, punk’s volatility, pop’s sugarcoated irony, and the politics of queer dance culture.
The title track serves as an introduction to the duo’s ethos. Here, “hardbody” isn’t merely a throwback term describing a gymbound cutie, but the physical state of inhabiting a body pushed to the limit by both internal and external forces. “I could give a fuck about the feds/Yeah, a fuck about the cops,” Logout snarls, their voice riding atop a bassline so nasty you can almost hear the screws rattling on a ramshackle 1989 Ford Fiesta. deBasement use the sonic and visual language of rave, garage, EDM, and electro pop to create a vivid universe, and the song’s bubbling synths and acidic beats evoke neon motorcycle helmets, towering speakers, and empty baggies crushed under high heels. “We like diamonds on the dancefloor,” Logout sings in the song’s coda, their words skittering and degrading as if their metaphorical armor is about to earn its every scuff and nick as the record plays on.
No score yet, be the first to add.
HARDBODY is sequenced like an epic night out: the early jolt of confidence, followed by a rush of euphoria, culminating in a heady mix of elation and exhaustion, and maybe a dash of regret. On single “STAY IN UR LANE,” Logout is full of bravado as they describe swerving in a droptop on their way to the function, avoiding “heiffas” whose dead weight would only slow them down (“Say you wanna fuck on me/Like, is you even gay?”). The track is built around an arpeggiated buzzsaw synth line, mimicking sports cars zooming past on a highway. It’s intense yet poppy, and the perfect lead-in to “THE FIT,” HARDBODY’s standout and most chart-ready track. Margo XS takes a bouncy, repetitive melody and slowly adds elements until it threatens to boil over, but never does. It’s easy for warbling breakdowns and four-to-the-floor beats to give way to mainstream EDM corniness, but Logout’s precise flow and the inventiveness of the production make “THE FIT” sound fresh rather than overdone.
A collaboration with Atlanta-based DJ and producer Nikki Nair and the aptly named DJ ADHD, “CUT THE LINE” is where Logout’s lyrical dexterity really shines. Presented as a spoken-word retelling of a cursed commute to the club, it comes off like the inner monologue of the protagonist from the “Smack My Bitch Up” video. Here, deBasement begin to give in to paranoia—the story ends with Logout and their drugged-up cohorts inciting a “full circuit twink bloodbath,” although one that feels like “heaven.” It’s over the top and pretty hilarious, and serves as the record’s emotional high point, where feeling good and feeling bad become sort of interchangeable under the correct influences.
