12”+

Back once again with the renegade run down… of 12” from my record bag, which I haven’t had chance to chat about elsewhere. You can catch me dropping a few of these in a mix on my last Xplodersession if you like. But here are some words if you’re deaf and still like collecting 12”s. Lock in to Sonic Router on Hivemind.fm this Sunday night 10-12pm with MLR for some fresh jams too… Words!

T.Williams – Afric/Anthem/Flooring [Local Action]
Tough, dark and techy UK funky vibes from Deep Teknologi’s T.Williams: Anthem and Flooring slay it, the former building tension and hitting hard while the latter brings a smidgen of almost Detroit sense of techno melody into the mix. Afric dubs things out a bit more leaving plenty of space between the tight funky drums.

Marcus Price & Carli - Mat Bira Kvinnor Weed EP [Palms Out Sound]
Heavy remix package featuring loads of Night Slugs related producers flipping the Dutch duo’s tough electro-tinged floor shakers. Bok Bok is the one for me, a tripped out drum machine workout close to Girl Unit’s juke inspired IRL. Girl Unit Features too with a cracker alongside Double Dutch and Kingdom.

MJ Cole – Riddim EP [Prolific Recordings]
Big riddim’s built to take over dance floors, MJ Cole flexing his crossover muscles blending grimy UK Funky and want sounds like a mad-mans vision of minimal techno and electro. The Volcano and Thekla riddims destroy it with shape shifting bass lines that keeps you on your toes and tons of energy, they turn heads.

Joe – Claptrap/Level Crossing [Hessle Audio]
One of my favourite Hessle releases has to be Rut/Grimelight, they get regular plays and this 12” is set to stay in my bag just as long. Claptrap is the deep percussive dubstep lovers ‘Hey Mickey’ with full on clap-along action, coughs and splutters aplenty and some of the most addictive drums around. Level Crossing takes things a little deeper with soca-addled rhythms and bursts of bass that cut through the subtle plucky melodies.

Orson – Madness/808 Dub [Version]
One of Berlin’s original dubstep heads drops a couple of deep bass workouts on his own label: Madness is the one here, teasing you with a long atmospheric build and pulses of sub before dropping some hip shaking tribal percussion its almost Loefah/Digital Mystkiz-esq in its execution. The flip works that drum machine into big half step patterns and wobbles the low end in subtle ways, a fine 12”.

SRC – Gold Coins [Numbers]
Grime producer SRC is coming with pure fire on wax this year, bringing those 8-bit Gameboy boogie vibes into the mix that got him noticed with the mad Mario sampling Goomba and twisting it into new shapes. Deep bass, hyper-funk synth bleeps, Technicolor grime textures that leave the dance floor with a vibrant glow.

Ramadanman – Glut/Tempest [Hemlock]
Massive 12”, subtly hitting the middle ground between Hessle’s deep percussive dance floor vibes and Addison Grooves Juke inspired dubstep manoeuvres. Glut bangs and beeps, which Tempest takes it a little deeper with a bittersweet spaced-out breakdown. Bring on the Swamp 81 12”, Work Them is fire…

A Made Up Sound – Alarm/Crisis [A Made Up Sound]
2562 slips seamlessly into his other moniker with two deadly shattered techno tracks that pack a punch and keep rolling despite their broken nature. Twisted synth lines shimmy through deep bass and techy accents on Alarm and Crisis rolls on a more straight forward house groove with jabbering energetic bass leads before it all melts into an intense spaced-out more melodic affair.

Kryptic Minds – One Of Us [Swamp 81]

Even though this is their second album One Of Us seems like a debut, a fresh start, a new sound. After countless years producing D&B and gaining a reputation as being some of the biggest in the game they decided to change the game and get involved with dubstep. Many D&B producers have made the transition to the deep and dark side of dubstep with grate success, Breakage, Instra:mental and Martyn all spring to mind alongside so many others. So Kryptic Minds story may not be that out of place but the unique sound they are brining back to dubstep kind of is. They hooked up with DMZ heavy weight Loefah and his newborn label Swamp 81 and together they have really set a statement of intent. They are going right to the dark side, with dark as hell atmospheric half step a sound pretty much pioneered by Loefah and Youngsta back in the early days of dubstep and a sound that has been neglected a little in recent times. One Of Us is that statement.

A menacing intro apparently made up of field recordings of walking on gravel melts into ‘One Of Us’ which first appeared on a 12” earlier in the year with ‘Six Degrees’ on the flip. It’s a dark almost subtle track, I say almost as these tracks have a huge amount of power to them but its restrained. Bass pulses, half step beats with some of the nicest sounding intricately swung high hats around, they really build grooves with the high end of the percussive spectrum. What Kryptic Minds do best is atmosphere and all of these tracks ooze with it. They don’t vary the template at all and this really creates a dense journey with a singular vision that’s so well executed.

The drops on the slow-mo industrial tribal-like ‘Generation Dub’ are so big, when they want to pummel you with bass they really know how to. Some of this album reminds me of Distance’s Repercussions from last year, especially the more percussive numbers with the more restrained less gnarly bass lines. Kryptic Minds keep the buzz saw bass patches for their d’n’b and go for a darker sound. ‘Stepping Stone’ is another highlight, with Arabic samples and a low slung bass groove and crisp rolling hi-hats with dubby techno pulses slowly building. For some reason they remind me of the dark end of Unkle when they turned a bit prog at times, at times this is a bit of a put off and at others it’s not even on my mind.

The opening strings and pads, drenched in crackle on ‘Something To Nothing’ really draws a Burial comparison it’s some seriously wide-screen cinematic tension building, like a high budget ‘In McDonalds’. ‘Secure Lost’ is on a similar tip with dubbed out vocal snippets and loads of field sounds, there is even a slight garage beat to it, but in half step, so you get bursts and tension, bursts and bass pressure. A Reece-like ghostly bass even features in all its looming glory. The restrain really adds a mesmerising distopian atmosphere drenched in a longing sadness.

‘Chosen Few’ is maybe the most aggressive dance floor punisher; the grizzly bass rasps are built to shake up the place. Yet it’s still pretty restrained in its evilness. They show that you can be dark and aggressive without becoming a cartoon. The album gets a little brighter with the last two tracks, glints of light can be seen anyway, and the brighter elements shine through. ‘Organic’ has a similar feel to ‘Stepping Stone’ and the closing track ‘Distant Dawn’ even twinkles with a bit of dewdrop melody and like the name suggests, the sound of a breaking dawn. There is such a free flowing organic feel to this album, where a lot of dubstep sounds made for the city, I can’t help but feel a rural warmth, loneliness and darkness in this.

Swamp 81 is set to shake and meditate soundsystems around the world, with rumoured Burial & Loefah hook-ups and a 12” from Skream on the way it’s bound to get attention and rightly so. Kryptic Minds take on the half step sound on One Of Us is drenched in cinematic proportions of atmosphere, if you’ve been in a club and heard some of these tracks in the mix the jump out at you in a way others don’t, with a fully formed world attached to them. If this album has a companion this year it has to be Clubroot’s self titled debut on Low Dubs, they’re both singular visions with Clubroot rolling out a slightly lighter garage sound compared to Kryptic Minds. A lot of people get compared to Burial but this release really does echo his sound all be it minus the garage and haunted crackle, Kryptic Minds are a hell of a lot smoother, precise and spaced out but with a similar depth in production with layers of field recordings and melancholic atmosphere. Sometimes One Of Us feels a bit to tasteful or even a little boring but in the right frame of mind it’s an epic listen that creates a fully realised world of its own that subtly progresses from pure darkness to smidgens of light, I guess it depends on your mood.

Blackdown Interview & Mix

http://www.myspace.com/krypticminds1

http://www.myspace.com/swamp81

Burial Collaborations

Burial has been quite ever since the mercury awards last year, well at least he hasn’t been in the public eye since then. But my god he has been busy where it counts most: in the studio if the rumours are right anyway.

First of all I read in an interview some time ago on ukhh with Flying Lotus where he mentioned after being asked about any Anglo-American collaborations he said, ‘I’ve also been working on something long term with Burial’ read it for your self here. This got my foaming at the mouth at the prospect, yet it was quite some time ago now and nothing has surfaced and there has hardly been a whisper since.

Then from the deep dark dance FWD>> comes news about people hearing a track that sounded like Burial from dBridge and low and behold confirmation comes from dubstepforum. Someone bumped into dBridge and he confirmed it.

There have been rumours a plenty for some time about Burial and D’n’B legend and Metalheadz owner Goldie hooking up but again nothing has surfaced and I once spent a good few hours locked into a sup-par Goldie hosted radio show on 1Xtra that promised a some sort of Burial action that never came.

Now for the real mouth watering part just a few weeks ago word came from a distributor that a Burial & Four Tet 12” was ready to drop at any moment. The tracks ‘Moth’ and ‘Wolf Cub’ are said to feature and I really don’t think any one but the lucky few have heard it, until clips appeared on Juno just yesterday. It sounds like business as usual from Burial but with a real tropical vibe and a four to the floor effort on the flip. I’m really not sure if it’s a collaboration or a split, but we will see next week.

Listen: Burial / Four Tet – Moth / Wolf Cub (Via Juno)


Then once again out of nowhere, well I say nowhere I mean Blackdown’s wicked Pitchfork column in an interview about Loefah’s new label Swamp 81 came word of Loe and Burial hooking up to remix Kryptic Minds for a 12” after the album drops.

I can almost hear these collaborations in my head when I think of the artists involved. Just imagine FlyLo’s organic flowing grooves playing off the sharp crackle of Burial’s ghostly garage or the D’n’B stylings of dBridge and Goldie bringing back the spirit of jungle together with a new pioneer. Then there is the subtle electronica of Four Tet with his crisp layers of atmospherics along side Burial’s vision. The deep half-stepping dark vision of Loefah with its massive bass and minimalist approach will be one hell of a juxtaposition to Burial’s riddims and Kryptic Minds vision of dubstep. Who knows when we will get to hear any of them mind but the mere speculation is pretty tantalising.

All pretty interesting stuff, and who says the mystery of Burial is now gone since the fuckers at The Sun ‘unmasked’ him. The music is doing the talking and that’s the way we like it.

http://www.myspace.com/burialuk

http://www.myspace.com/flyinglotus

http://www.myspace.com/exitrecords

http://www.myspace.com/metalheadzltd

http://www.myspace.com/fourtetkieranhebden

http://www.myspace.com/loefah

http://www.myspace.com/swamp81