Coki At Juno Download

Review: DMZ stalwart Coki launches his new label Don't Get It Twisted in fine style. "Bob's Pillow" is a wonderfully bizarre affair, taking a haunted dancehall approach to the classic Coki sound and flying in some interesting spoken word samples over the top about a chap and his smoking habits. "Spooky" is more traditional in its overt dread and a prolific deployment of hefty editing and nagging sound effects for maximum hype, but still this seems to be Coki in a more experimental mode than elsewhere, promising interesting things for this label.

Review: Coki makes a welcomed return to the airwaves after a three-year hiatus. Yes, it's been a whole three years since THAT seminal collab with Benga ("Night") in 2008 and a further two years more since his last solo venture - "Tortured / Shattered" - in 2006. Coki flips things on the proverbial lid here with a couple of quirky cuts; first up "Boomba" pairs shaking sub bass wobbles with lacerating lasso whips, a curious harpsichord melody, abstract rhythms and glorious Joker style synth work. This is complimented by "Carbon Aliens" - a lurching halfstep monster with gurgling SFX and smashing drum kicks that will bring the fear of god into you.

Review: Coki's solo outings are few and far between, with only a handful of productions attributed to his own moniker over the past six years, but what he lacks in output he more than makes up for in consistency. This new EP on his now legendary DMZ imprint is a case in point; "Tree Trunk" consists of the kind of jackhammer bass and tense synths that could only come from South London, whilst "Lower Octave" sees the sub frequencies getting a full workout across the spectrum, with the bass turning to bleeps as the track reaches its climax. Up next, "Celestial Dub" is a much less abrasive affair, instead taking its cues from classic dub, combining a number of delay soaked piano and reverb laden organ chords over its enveloping bassline, and "Think Your Gone" adds significant brain-melting oscillation to its subs to rank among Coki's deadliest productions.

Review: Still stoutly flying the flag for creative avenues within the midrange grind of wobbly dubstep, Coki is still doing it his way and doing it right. The absurdity of the LFOing on "Mid June Madness" can only be intentional, but in the process it creates a strange, alien headspace that reaches far beyond simple aggression. "Light Years" is more carefully orchestrated before the staggering rampage of "On Board" brings things back to a more guttural mood, while "Drop N Run" heads off on a completely bizarre tangent that fuses the chainsaw synths with prominent string arrangements.

Review: You can rely on one of dubstep's forefathers to reach out and provide an antidote to the tirade of frenetic, synth-driven bangers that have to come to dominate the dubstep scene of late. If you find yourself despairing, then look no further than this masterfully crafted seven-track LP from DMZ's Coki. Opening cut "Shock It" is all serrated snares, oceanic rumbles and thudding drum kicks imbued with aggressive b-line swagger whilst "Serious" and "Intergalactic" add a dose of musicality and early Skream-meets-Mala style meditation. Things get dark and grimey again in "Robotnik" but "It" rounds things off with disorientating SFX, gloomy atmospherics and dubbed out riddims.