Zomby - One Foot Ahead Of The Other EP [Ramp]

Back again from the dead Zomby walks amongst us One Foot Ahead Of The Other. A double EP of day-glow psychedelic bleep driven music that only the man himself can make, in some ways this is the natural successor to last years amazing Hyperdub EP full of twists and turns, flailing Gameboy sounds, freaked and tweaked arpeggiated synths and deep undulating bass. But this time the beats are more four to the floor rather than the lopsided boom bap of its predecessor. Its all somehow more floaty and dreamy too, make no mistake these tracks will destroy dance floors but this by hypnotising them.

The title track opens proceedings in fine style the break-y beats combined with a sublime bleep bloop melody over some chest beating bass create a beautiful melancholy yet energetic number. Zomby’s use of melody is something else on this EP he’s always had an ear for it but it really drives the One Foot Ahead Of The Other EP. Helter Skelter has a similar feel to much of the Hyperdub EP with twisted speeding up and down synth motifs and a monster groove, you get a wicked fucked up energy from it.

You flip and reveal yet more bombs Pumkinhead’s Revenge is easily one of the highlights for me the bleeping high end makes psychedelic shapes and switches over a steady driving four four beat and the odd deep bass 808-esq stab. Its almost as if acid house has been torn a new a-hole by beings not from this world.

The lilting twists of Polka Dot create such a tense pent up energy that will keep the dance floor on edge. There is a kind of Baltimore house bounce at play here somehow, it really is hard to categorise Zomby he’s been embraced by the dubstep community yet is something else entirely, he’s out on his own...

The sublime shimmer of Godzilla may well be some of the best work Zomby has put out to date, you can get lost in those twinkling shifting melodies and spaced out grooves that the bass and beats bring. It switches up into an energetic finale too.

The deep bass driven groove of Expert Tuition is probably the most dubstep sounding thing on here, but with added skip and shuffle. Again the EP’s trademark is those killer synth hooks and bleeps but here we get a nice smeared neon synth line that gives a woozey feel.

The last side kicks off with Bubble Bobble which I’m guessing is inspired at least in title by the amazing computer game of old, there is certainly a bubbly feel to it you can hear shapes in his synth work. This would have fitted in nicely on the Hyperdub EP too, the beats really propel this one, this is fucked up.

Mescaline Cola has a futuristic dancehall bass and bumping jacking beats that play under yet more woozy smeared synth lines and addictive bleeping tweaked out melodies, this is another favourite of mine.

The EP comes to a head with Firefly Finale, a moving almost emotional sounding end of night number that sounds like it could have come straight out of a scene in an RPG on the SNES but perked up for the dance floor.

One Foot Ahead Of The Other is a special EP you just don’t hear music like this from anyone else, Zomby is a talent pushing his own vision further with each step. The Hyperdub EP pushed things forward but was to weird for some the groves were hard and strange but here he’s brought melody to the forefront and made something that’s easier to listen to yet doesn’t compromise any of his deranged twisted ideas, this will win over a lot of new fans. This has to be one of the must have EP’s of the year. Zomby has found that if he puts One Foot Ahead Of The Other he doesn’t put a step wrong.

http://www.myspace.com/zombyproductions

http://www.myspace.com/ramprecordings