Review: Livity Sound has come a long way since surfacing as something like white label for Peverelist, Kowton and Asusu's music - the latter's "Sister" a bonafide gem! Over the years it has expanded its roster to the point of becoming a landmark within UK bass music - especially that of Bristol! If you wanted to catch up with what that sound actually is, still fresh as f*** in 2021 - Molten Mirrors: A Decade Of Livity Sound is your port of call. For the first of two parts, it's Batu in the mix with a feel-good yet grubby, junkyard industrial banger "Melts Into Air" which sits nicely next to the abstracted beats of Two Shiel's "Big Style". With deeper mysticisms comes Azu Tiwaline's slower "Nissa" next to the faster polyrhythms of Forest Drive West's "Lost Signal", with Facta, Al Wooton and Cando spreading some hypercolor synths and high fidelity beats in their sessions. And check out the leftfield selection of warped, jazzy breakdowns by DJ Plead that makes for a perfect segue into Bakongo's "Ashy".
Review: Hessle Audio mark the first release of their 10th year in business with a label debut from one of Bristol's finest. Head of the Timedance label and events series, Batu steps up with four tracks of driving percussion and oddball atmospherics. Starting off with the offbeat sci-fi groove that is the title rack, "Off Court" soon gets into some booming lo-end dynamics, complimented by some darkly emotive synth textures. "Nosema" is the most straight ahead effort on here: a tight and rolling groove (for sweaty late night weirdness) until the lush ambient epic "Don't" closes out the EP in top style. In addition to his hot releases on Dnuos Ytivil and Fringe White in recent times: this guy's on fire!
Review: After Livity Sound established itself as a self-contained affair originally centred around Pev, Kowton and Asusu, it was intriguing to see the net widen with the introduction of the Ytivil Dnuos sublabel as a place for likeminded, fresh talent to reside. After the previous Livity Sound original and remix compilations, now the 'reverse' label has its own collection, bringing focus on a host of producers who are now reaching notoriety in their own right. From the recent thrill of Simo Cell to Hodge's first outing on the imprint, via Bruce, Batu and Alex Coulton, this is as strong a statement of cutting edge UK soundsystem electronics as you could wish for.
Review: Started as an opportunity for Livity Sound to release music from producers outside of the core label trio of Pev, Kowton, and Asusu, the Dnuos Ytivil label welcomes Bath-based producer Batu into the fold. When respected Bristol figureheads like Pev and Pinch come calling, the rest should take note! Batu really steps up to the plate on this Dnuos Ytivil single. "Spooked" sounds almost like it could be an old Skull Disco record played at 33rpm, while "Clarity (Dismantled)" offers something more prickly and paranoid in its heavily syncopated, pattering rhythms.
Review: Batu has made a name with releases on Timedance and Livity's offshoot label, but before that happened, he released his two-tracker on Pinch's Cold imprint back in 2013. Positioned at the dark and austere end of the bass spectrum, it is a far cry from some of the sunnier iterations of that style that are currently in circulation. "Eraser" revolves around a one-note bleep sequence, frosty filters, distorted percussion and lumbering, all-encompassing bass. On "Stairwells", Batu deploys a similarly powerful bass, which hums and buzzes its way over a rolling drum pattern and an eerie synth line. There's very little to either track, but like the rest of Batu's catalogue, that's part of the appeal.
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