Flux Pavilion, Freestylers & Belle Humble - Cracks Begin To Show

Wasn’t ready for how well these three fit together. Flux Pavilion still swings that big rubbery midrange wobble like it’s 2011 and nobody told him the trend cycle moved on, Freestylers drag their old breakbeat instincts into it, and Belle Humble sits on top with a hook that keeps the whole thing from collapsing into pure muscle. “Cracks Begin To Show” earns its title in the arrangement: the first drop is all confidence, and then the second one lets the low end fracture and stumble on purpose, like the track is coming apart in slow motion while somehow still hitting. That deliberate falter around the two-minute mark is the best idea on here, and most producers would smooth it out and lose the entire point of the song. Flux has spent a decade getting written off as a nostalgia act, and this is him shrugging at that and doing the exact thing that made him a name, just meaner and better mixed. The vocal is big and clean and never tips into soft-drink-advert territory, which is the tightrope this kind of dubstep almost always falls off. One degree too polished and it’s an advert, one degree too heavy and the hook vanishes under the bass. It threads it. I’ve had it back three times and the fracture still catches me every pass, which is the only test I actually trust.

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