Goth-trad At Juno Download

Review: Weighing in with some cumbersome dubstep styles on his familiar stomping ground, Goth Trad is back to scare the living daylights out of you on "Air Breaker". Proving that there can be some give in big room ravey dubstep, the track may primarily lurch around aggravated mid-range synth grind, but the moments of calm creep in with control that comes from a diverse and adaptable producer. "Cosmos", up next, meanwhile takes the deeper approach, using inter-locking precussion and devastating sub bass for a classic exercise in proper dubstep. Whichever kind of set you're plumping for, this release is definitely for the purists. Highly recommended.

Review: Japanese producer Goth Trad is an interesting character. Some years ago, he single-handedly tried to introduce a form of music called "mad rave" - an intense and really quite insane fusion of D&B, hardcore, break core and dubstep. There are occasional echoes of that period on New Epoch - his first full-length for bass music hipsters Deep Medi - but for the most part it's a fairly careful and considered set. Mostly built around variants of dubstep rhythms, it fuses chiming melodies and clanking industrial sounds with hand-picked samples, skittering percussion and subdued, sub-shaking grooves. In parts, it has more in common with IDM than hardcore, but that's no bad thing. It's certainly his most grown-up album to date - highly recommended.