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N Type's imprint Wheel & Deal have snapped up this rising producer named after the legendary martial arts teacher. "Raindance" is sparse and fast; almost 4/4 techno but with that little urban skip to remind us where he's really at. There's no more subtleties from hereon in though, "In Atari" is the dark and punishing sound of a malevolent robot slowly dying and "Messenger" is a slow dubstep swagger with contorted vocals. Ipman's percussion-heavy remix of Killawatt is also supplied as is the latter's doom-house remix of the former.
Frenchman in London, Von D never fails to add a distinctive sophistication to his dubstep. And this is certainly no exception. His debut on Darkside's evergreen Get Darker imprint, each of the three cuts here bustle with the sexiest shades of traditional dubstep, house and garage. "Deeper" rumbles with a rolling break, emotional synths and delicate vocals from Phephe, "Eyes On You" is a more tribal workout with singed bass and yet more textured, well processed vocals. "Sunflower" finishes the set with a string-shimmered Freddie Hubbard sample. Get Darker? Get "Deeper", more like...
Finnish bass addicts Vesicle return to Paradise Lost with a feisty fiver of ghetto shock-outs. "Inconvenient Truth" is just as much hip-hop as it is dubstep; eerie, mean and paranoid, its stark slams are the ideal bed for Kansas rappers The Cyclops. "Cropkets" is a glitchier affair with a trappy vocal loop that's down-pitched and demonic. "White Light" sees them pay homage to Paradise Lost's more traditional sound with a deep, woozy halfstep swagger with groaning bass and moaning distorted tones. All reverb and trippiness, "Rebellion" takes things deeper again with nod towards classic space-bound dub. There's nothing inconvenient about this at all. And that's truth street.
Originally released on Lovewave in 2010, "Future Samba" gets two contemporisations from both Prism himself and Mancunian artist Compa. The VIP adds more swing and fractures to the original's 4/4 while retaining all the jazzy mysticism of the horns. Compa's rub, meanwhile, takes things in a much spacier realm with pads so heavy and swooping they could align planets and trumpets so heavily processed you need to be in a coma to hear them. Welcome to the future.
Last spotted on Mishva's "Gaia" EP last October, "Civilization" is a purring, tribal dub workout with just a smidgeon of techno temper thrown in. Here we find it twisted in four different ways... Tallan softens the growls and adds a nagging stabbing hook, Warsa takes us on a much more spacious trip with echoed out rimshots and cosmic synth wafts, Native gets trippy on the percussion arrangements while Darj serves up a deep digi dub riddim with a slow, smouldering stomp.
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