This is the good kind of ugly. Zero builds the whole thing out of empty space and sub pressure, the sort of 140 dubstep that leaves half of every bar silent so the low end has somewhere to fall, and then Killa P walks in and starts issuing threats over it. His voice sits so far forward it feels like he’s in the room telling you personally to move, and if you know him from the grime and dubstep crossover records he’s been on for years, you know he does not do this gently. I love how little happens on the surface here. Two or three sounds, a kick you feel in your sternum before you actually hear it, and an MC who was doing this before half the UKF comments section was born. There’s a moment near the back where the bassline drops a semitone and the whole track tilts, like the floor deciding to lean under everyone standing on it. Grime and dubstep have been circling each other since the early Croydon days and this is the version where they finally just shake hands and get on with it. I put it on expecting a rewind or two and stayed for the whole thing twice through. It’s the best thing I’ve heard come off that channel in weeks, and on a real system the silences hit as hard as the bass does. Not one for the neighbours.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.