msft makes dubstep like he’s got a grudge against your ceiling. The guy is based in Italy, which still surprises people who assume this patient, low-slung UK strain of 140 only ever came out of Bristol or Leeds, and Automatic is him proving geography stopped mattering to this sound a decade ago. Rakjay rides the beat the way the best UK MCs do, not showing off, just applying pressure, every bar landing a half-step behind where you expect it and dragging the groove along with him. The bass works on your body before your ears catch up, the kind of weight you feel in your back teeth. These two have circled each other before, back when Rakjay closed out msft’s lowercasE EP, and you can hear the shorthand: nobody’s announcing anything, they just lock in and let the empty space do half the work. There’s a stretch in the back half where almost everything cuts out except a single sub pulse and a scrap of the vocal, and that emptiness is scarier than any screech a brostep producer ever bounced out. This is sound-system music in the oldest sense, built for a rig that can actually move air. Find one and stand too close to it.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.