Modestep still make dubstep like it owes them money. NEED DAT lurches in on a vocal chop that sounds like it’s being dragged across gravel, and by the first drop the whole thing has turned into a brawl. What I’ve always liked about this lot is that they came up as an actual band, guitars and a drummer and the works, so their heavy stuff has a swing to it that pure laptop dubstep never quite lands. The second drop swaps the growl for something leaner and meaner, and it’s the better half of the track by a mile. There’s a half-bar around the two-minute mark where everything drops out except the vocal and a kick, and that little pocket of space is what makes the return hit like it does. It isn’t reinventing anything and doesn’t pretend to. It’s just Modestep remembering they’re one of the few groups who can make this sound like sweat rather than software. Filthy in the way you want a Tuesday-night warehouse to be filthy, and loud enough to annoy your neighbours twice over.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.