Rude Kid – Jack Daniels EP [No Hoods No Hats]

Are you ready!?! That’s Rude Kid’s sonic trademark, when you hear that in the mix you know you’re getting a quality beat. The grime producer has been a staple of sets for so long now: shows or mixtapes hardly go by without you hearing that familiar sonic mem, it’s engrained in my mind along with Terror Danjah’s gremlin cackle and Silencer’s ‘Terrrrreeeey’ as a signifier for, ‘it’s going to go off’. It’s not his first time out on No Hoods No Hats either with the ‘Are You Ready EP’. Plus he comes hot on the heels of Royal T’s insane ‘1UP or Shatap EP’ and last years anthem ‘Next Hype’ by the one and only Tempz, but Rude Kid easily holds his own in such company with this new instrumental EP.

The title track ‘Jack Daniels’ is a freak hybrid of hard pulsing techno, dubstep, funky and grime. The four to the floor kicks and beefy bass pulses wouldn’t be to out of place in an old Laurent Garnier set next to ‘Crispy Bacon’ or ‘Acid Eiffel’. But they’re equally at home in the boxes of grime DJs too the track bangs hard and should add some energy to sets. Rude Kid then drops the instrumental to his shake up of Man Like Me’s ‘London Town’, it’s a bubbling garage number with a grime flex, piano licks, skippy drums, rudeboy bass and it pretty much hits the spot.

The flip is the grimiest: ‘Emergency’ brings out the big guns with its dirty, grizzly bass tones, raw funk and cheeky rave stabs that are guaranteed to make you skank. ‘Best Crawler’, a collaboration with Terror Danjah is the highlight of a solid package. It’s got the hard-funk and raw power of both producers, along with both of their sonic trademarks. Plus the flip between huge bass pulses, grimy violins, Gameboy-esq bleeps and propulsive, musical trance-like elements just kills it.

With grime’s instrumental releases picking up once again on vinyl with big hitters and new kids on the block loading their guns ready for release on labels like Butterz, Hyperdub, Planet Mu and Numbers as well as No Hats No Hoods, Rude Kid is out the blocks with an EP full of grime tools to get things moving in fine style.




http://www.myspace.com/nohatsnohoods

http://www.myspace.com/rudekidproductions

Written for Sonic Router.