MARKLE 58a Tetherdown, London, N10 1NG
QUICKIES Alex Coulton
Adventures In 4x4 EP Hypercolour 8.0
With a distinctive whiff of dancefloor urgency, this new EP on the evergreen Hypercolour bounces in all the right places, and after the rather obvious opener of ‘Dance, Max’, the real Coulton quirkiness creeps out.
Blacksmif How The Fly Saved
The River Blah Blah Blah 7.5
Edgy, fidgety and emotionally-charged dance music that’s desperate to provoke and move you to dance throughout. ‘Kang’s Odyssey’ follows inna similar fashion with a hint of Marvin, with
DUBSTEP REVIEWS
Lorca chipping in a stabby remix to boot.
Jay Weed
Tunnel 2084 7.0
Born from the agency of the same name, the debut release on 2084 from Weed is a bass monster circuited with electronics and haunted by at least one ghost.
Skream
Skreamizm 7 Tempa 8.0
Sadly only privvy to two tracks from this EP, but nevertheless ‘Copycat’ is a superb slice of minimal, plinky pop featuring the sex breath of Kelis. ‘Sticky’ is a terrifying 4x4 acidic stomp.
Wraetlic Alex Smoke Presents
Wraetlic Sampler Convex Industries
8.5
A new side project from the Scottish techno wizard Mr Smoke, named Wraetlic, meaning wraith-like in old Anglo-Saxon, perfectly conjures up the other- worldliness of this project. The opener on this 10” sampler is ‘Rats’, a particularly unsettling, discordant, semi- glitched scrape of electronica. ‘Refrain’ morphs out of the gentle glint of sparkling bleeps, dissolving into grainy mulch, much like the spooked soul of ‘The Watching Eye’, until Scuba’s SCB persona stretches ‘Rats’ over a marauding seven minutes of prime techno.
Ayah Marar
Raver Pilot
2.0 LX-ONE WHEEL & DEAL
01. ICICLE ‘Acid Step VIP’ Shogun “This is a relick of an already sick tune, and he’s somehow made it harder and
angrier, but still with the same vibe.”
02. JOHN B ‘Love Again (LX-ONE Remix)’ Beta “When I got asked to do this, I was very excited, as John B is a legend, so I
wanted to make sure that this repped what I did but still kept a similar vibe to the original.”
03. BIOME ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ Dub “Biome always comes with the goods, this is a tribal riddim!”
04. LX-ONE & YOUNGSTA ‘No Cure’ Dub “This is another collaboration from Youngsta and myself. We wanted to do a
no-snare skanky tune, and this is what came out.”
05. KILLAWAT ‘Genetic Drift’ Dub “Another favourite producer of mine. This is on a techno kinda vibe, a right
little skanker!”
06. YOUNGSTA ‘Destruction’ Tempa “Absolute stinker coming out on Tempa, this one is hard and is Youngsta’s
first solo release.”
07. BEN VERSE, LX-ONE & YOUNGSTA ‘Different Way’ Crunch “A collab that came about while I was in Brighton, and we consumed a lot of
cheese that day. Getting released on Ben Verse’s label Crunch Recordings.”
08.
SP.MC. ‘Launch Code’ Tempa “The next forthcoming release on Tempa, mids on this tune have some warp-
ing distortion, beware.”
09. MATTY G & J:KENZO ‘SC Connection’ Dub “Love this, one of those collaborations that needed to happen!”
10. LX-ONE ‘Scary People’ Dub “A roller from myself, hopefully you will see this early next year!”
As you lie prostrate, impaled on the horns of mediocrity, the mainstream slapping you around the face with your own castrated bollocks, you pray for a quick death as the saccharine, happy- go-lucky warble of ‘Raver’ is played to you for the 500th time, only to have your spirit crushed by three remixes of untold sadism. The ridiculously-named Kenny Souffle drops a passable faux trap remix, but it’s like sticking a finger plaster on a double leg amputation.
Cluekid
Dolphin/Fossil Aquatic Labs 6.5
Looking like south London’s Cluekid has found a new home with the Aquatic Labs crew, the Antipodeans are clearly providing a friendly and solid outlet for his halfstep machinations. ‘Dolphin’ is as briney as it sounds, all lapping tidal effects and marine fairies. ‘Fossil’ wades in as a
perky little number, with some tasty vibe plonks and syncopated drums, finished off rather nicely by the meandering ‘Nihonto’, going all Japanese with both the sword reference and melodics.
Indigo
Celestial Apollo 8.5
It’s great when a producer who’s been coming up for so long finally seems to be hitting a consistently rich vein of quality. With Manchester’s Indigo, it has actually felt like it was the rest of the “scene” that had to do the catching up. This four-track EP is a perfect testament to that, from the rhino plod of ‘Sea Of Stars’ with its scattering of dub chords, to the deliberate expanse of ‘Azha’, drawn out further through its pitched down tempo, further entrenched by ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Keerthana’, which snap off the handle at 11 on the epic dial.
Karton
Ready For More EP Klub Kids 2.0
Enduring the torment of having to wade through four tracks of this EP was made slightly more bearable, as it drove me to watch the previous output from this Australian duo. The videos of ‘Bang’ and ‘Chase It High’ surely must have missed the honours of most major awards by the slimmest of margins — what dynamic, original artistry. After the pallid, weeping d&b of the title track followed by two more overwrought brostep numbers, I gave up and had to have a lie down.
Roots Manuva
Banana Skank EP Big Dada 7.5
This is a cause for celebration! Rodney Smith has been back in
www.djmag.ca
the studio, making his own beats without any pretenders near the production boards. Phew. Thankfully, this EP culminates in two yardie dubwise beasts called ‘Natural’ and ‘Part Time’, both featuring long-time collaborator Kope, who is unfortunately overshadowed by Manuva’s legendary flow. But it’s the beats that deserve special attention; wicked echobox effects and killer basslines combine to produce his best thing since ‘Witness’.
Shadow Child
23 EP Food Music 8.0
House vet, Mr Dave Spoon, dons the Shadow Child balaclava, dropping the bells and whistles of his usual main room steez and allowing for a more serpentine character to ooze through the speakers. Title track, ‘23’, knows what it’s doing, with its bumpy, slo-mo Todd Edwards flexing, but the second track, ‘Sensible Haircut’, is where shit really happens: the simplest of electronic plinks, soulful wailings and widescreen synthlines, all pinned tastefully together with a reverberating machine buzz on this low-slung bass-fuelled houser. Superb.
Youngsta
Poseidon/Destruction Tempa 7.0
It’s good to hear the brooding, beating heart of dubstep is still pulsing in the chests of a few people. Whilst the majority of the halfstep producerati have jumped the fence for more interesting beat patterns and liberal uses of the word “Bro” or “Post”, Youngsta, one of the original pioneers, continues to fly the flag high. Whilst ‘Poseidon’ feels a little staid in places, ‘Destruction’ comes at you with a full-frontal assault.
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