Lens - Check 2 (ft. Paul Stephan)

I had this on in the kitchen and my downstairs neighbour texted before the second drop, which is the highest form of review a dubstep track can earn. Check 2 is deep, rolling 140 with a bassline that gurgles more than it screeches, the kind of sound that rewards a subwoofer and embarrasses a phone speaker. Paul Stephan’s vocal is chopped into little gasps and scattered across the top, so you’re never quite sure whether you’re hearing a word or just texture. The groove sits in that hypnotic pocket where nothing dramatic has to happen because the sheer weight is doing all the talking. There’s a swing to the drums that keeps it from turning into a straight metronome, a little drunken lean on the snare. I kept waiting for it to blow the roof off and it never does, and that patience is the whole reason it lands as hard as it does. It’s a headphones-at-midnight track that also works at volume in a dark room, and I’ve tested both this week. Lens has been building toward this exact sound for a while and Check 2 is where it clicks into place. Worth the noise complaint.

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