Lateral - Le Rock

When did drum and bass get this comfortable being funny? Le Rock arrived on Viper with its tongue halfway through its cheek, a rolling dancefloor cut built on a vocal snippet that sounds lifted off a scratched disco record and a bassline that struts instead of stomping. Lateral clearly grew up on the Hospital end of the spectrum, where the drums swing and the point is to make a room move rather than flinch. The drop does not try to behead you. It locks into a groove and dares you to stand still, which I could not manage. There is a filtered guitar lick that comes in on the second half and turns the whole thing into something you could play at a barbecue and a rave with equal success. Most DnB that reaches for fun ends up sounding like a cartoon of itself. This keeps the wink without becoming the joke, which is a much harder balance to land than the loud stuff gets credit for. Proper weekend fuel, and the kind of record that converts people who swear they hate the genre.

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