Pursuit Grooves – Fox Trot Mannerisms [Tectonic]

Tectonic are one of the staples in the dubstep scene a label that has been doing it since day one showcasing some of the deepest and darkest sounds from the raw and rolling to techno inspired gems, a diverse spectrum for sure but until now they hadn’t really released anything that wasn’t dubstep, even the slower dub techno numbers by 2562 or the trippy soul of Flying Lotus fit the loose genre tag dubstep has become be it in tempo or vibe. Well Pursuit Grooves changes that: Vanese Smith The Brooklyn producer/MC/vocalist makes a soulful broken house hybrid that oozes with a hypnotic charm that could fit anywhere between the loose touchstones of Kyle Hall’s Detroit techno or the UK hip-hop hybrid of Floating Points. Fox Trot Mannerisms…

We open with ‘Pressure’, a looping piano number that rolls to a bumpy pulse and ebbs from jazzy and sublime to raw and punchy the whole time. She jumps from rapping to singing with ease, ridding the wonked-out beat with a woozy atmospheric flow. The buzzing bassline of ‘Start Something’ growls and bubbles against some bumpin’ beats before switching groove, like a spaced out jazz variant on grime. Much like Kyle Halls recent Hyperdub release, the track ‘Mr Softee’ feels like dubstep despite not really being it at all. It’s the clattering drums, big base, dubbed out vibe and warm fuzzy synths that do it.

A highlight has to be the deeply hypnotic ‘Shabaps’, which has this airy, hyper-soul feel to it. Drum machines drop cowbells and claves into spaced out vocal samples, before melting into an addictive groove and luscious synth pads. It makes me melt… ‘Whisper’ is pure gold too taking that woozy future soul into a shimmering melancholic avenue of sound, that breaks out of creepy film samples and brain clattering drum frequencies. The sound of hip-hop and house beamed into deep space. The vibe continues with ‘Tweezers’, which has a mellow jacking feel to it. Chopped up samples twisting and looping into hypnotic shapes. The closer, ‘Cosey’ which just keeps those drum grooves rolling and the spaced out synths shimmering like Detroit techno lost in time.

A hypnotic set of tracks that ooze soul and raw energy brought on by the samples and drums, they loop with an intensity and power that offsets the spaced out charm of her synths and vocals brilliantly. Pursuit Grooves brings something really different and pretty addictive to Tectonic with Fox Trot Mannerisms, recommended.



http://www.myspace.com/vjsmith
http://www.myspace.com/tectonicrecordings