Gerry Read At Juno Download

Review: Notable for the bulk of greatness on Ramp offshoot Fourth Wave, Gerry Read steps out in style for the 2nd Drop imprint - backed with an equally fine remix from Youandewan. "Roomland" is an expertly crafted excursion through the murkiest depths of techno pressure, all swinging syncopation cutting through the thick viscous layers of bassy atmospherics. It comes across like Anton Zap getting the Modern Love treatment, and it's the little rhythmic deviations and unwillingness to lock into one monotone groove that keep this interesting. Next, Youandewan strips the track of its percussive sheen, replacing the flex with an intricate 2-step rhythm and warbling synth refrains. The overall murky feel remains throughout though.

Review: It may be early days for Gerry Read, but already his unique tendencies are standing him aside from the rest of the sizable pack. On "We Are" a few grainy samples start a steady house template. After a crafty dropout the tune switches into a distorted piano house jam of the highest order. "Narry" kicks off on a steadier groove; the melodic elements easing smoothly into the melee while the main hook of a bluesy vocal duels with the filter. Unconventional they may be, but with the right room of freaks in front of them there's no reason why these tracks can't be party rockers. Essential.

Review: Having firmly found his groove with UK labels such as 2nd Drop and Fourth Wave, Gerry Read's latest EP sees that further notch in his ascendancy as he gets snapped up by Dutch institution Delsin to kick off their new house-orientated series. Stylistically, the four tracks on this new EP continue the mission statement Read has already laid out; there's a claustrophobic quality to lead track "Yeh Come Dance", that finds a cacophony of wooden percussion and angular vocal loops sweating all over each other while the hi-hats leer on drunkenly. As something of a contrast, the beat in "Crawlspace" is decidedly straight by these standards, letting the sequencing of the drum machine call more of the shots before too much wayward sample placing can send the rhythm askew. It doesn't take much to see the jazzy quality in Read's music, but "Bozza" perhaps marks the first instance where this quality has been capitalised on and fully realised. In that sense it marks something of a progression for the young beatsmith, as the complex arrangement of brushed drums, piano and other sonic debris aim for a place other than that usual seedy corner of the dancefloor. "Crooked" rounds off the EP with by distilling all these feelings into one track of strung out strangeness, where the groove is borrowed from garage and then robbed of its innocence, with an underlying bed of mean-spirited audio fragments. As with all the GR output it's evocative stuff, and reminds you that this EP marks not just consistency but also progress for the plucky producer.

Review: Rounding off another strong year for 2nd Drop, this strong pair of remixes come from two producers who also enjoyed plenty of breakthrough success this year. Distal takes on Gerry Read and twists his smudged house into a honed and rapid-fire footwork assault, full of tumbling toms and vocal hooks while the melodic mystery of the original remains. Sully meanwhile steals the show with his reduced garage roller, emphasising the funk and keeping the subby bass swells lean and mean. It's a freaky space his remix inhabits; somewhere near the early days of Horsepower with that addictive whipcrack beat and ambiguous atmosphere.