Son Raw is allergic to indie dance
First up this week, newcomers Wallwork & RZR come through with some truly demented hardcore/jungle experimentations. Done wrong, jungle revivalism is cringe-inducing nostalgia only slightly better than the reheated-house in the mainstream, but these tracks, particularly “Don’t Panic,” take inspirations from the original sound while switching up the structure. I’ve mixed this in with everything from Special Request to more techy Club Constructions type of stuff, and it’s the kind of tune that immediately grabs the crowd’s interest.
Last Japan’s Ride with Us mixtape stood out from the pack of new grime releases last year for a couple of reasons. First, it was a full length statement and second, it made significant efforts to bridge the gaps between the original wave and new school thanks to vocals from emcees like Trim and Rapid. Standout track “Harca” may be instrumental, but it shares that old/new dichotomy, and Coyote Records recently featured it as part of their white label series, backing it with a pair of remixes from Forever Forever and Tom E. Vercetti. The standout throughout each version? A killer melody line that could be straight out the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack.
When we last checked out Swing Ting, they’d just dropped their label’s debut plate bringing together London’s Brackles and Manchester’s Fox. The follow-up sees the production duo’s Samrai and Platt put out two of his own tunes, and frankly, it’s even more in line with the sound that I’m into right now. On one hand, “One Step” is classic UK shit: a dark beat and a ragga emcee. On the other, the riddim is configured in up-to-the-minute styles, sounding so 2015. Meanwhile “Bad Riddim” takes it back to the day when dubstep was interesting with heavily swung production, an acidic bassline and nuff urban atmosphere. Tectonic’s got a new single from Wen coming up and I’m already dreaming up ways to mix these plates together…
Continuing in the same vein, Durkel Disco (amazing name gang) just put out a stormer by Bristol’s Lojik. He keeps the same focus on darkness as the Swing Ting bits above, but the rhythmic structures on both “Saracen” and “Day Z” hint at nothing less than . . . breaks. The good news is that we’re talking about the rude, mid-period Zinc stuff that was going on when grime and dubstep weren’t yet defined—not a bad era to draw inspiration from if I do say so myself.
Finally, Houston’s Rabit may be on the verge of some serious hype. While Boxed fans (and you know, anyone who reads this site) will be familiar with the damage he’s done over the past 2 years, his Baptizm EP pushes him even further out there into the kind of purely experimental space his peers Mumdance and Logos have taken to. Balancing straight up ambient pieces like “Imp” to the kind of post-grime deconstructions he’s been known for so far, it’s his most impressive statement yet and one that should satisfy experimental grime connoisseurs AND the Ghetto Gothic club crowd.
