501 - The Final Cut (Chime Remix)

What happens when a dnb producer hands a track to someone who lives at 140? You get The Final Cut in Chime’s hands, and the answer is: it gets meaner and slower and somehow more urgent. 501’s original was rolling neurofunk, all forward momentum, and Chime drags it down into dubstep territory without losing the aggression that made it work — if anything the halved tempo gives every bass growl more room to actually land on your chest. Chime came up making melodic stuff and has been getting progressively filthier release by release, and this is him fully committed to the dark side. The first drop at 1:25 hits with this detuned, almost seasick wobble that keeps sliding just out of tune before snapping back, which is a horrible sensation and I mean that as the highest compliment. There’s a real craft to making a bassline feel physically wrong on purpose. I’ve had it on in the car twice and both times caught myself grimacing at the drop, which is exactly the reaction this kind of thing is going for. Grim, patient, and heavier than it has any right to be.

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