Review: Ink's Architecture welcome invite Shinobi to the fold for a full album of gnarled junglistic proportions. Tense, gritty, heavyweight and uncompromising, across this first volume of High Tech Soul Shinbo lays down concrete slabs of beats and sacks of intoxicating low end with a vibe that takes us right back to the classic days of tech step and early Virus. Highlights include the twisted reese and ghostly vocal breaths on 'Hold On', the dreamy intentions of the title track 'Falling Tides' and the absolute brutalism of the incredible 'No More Hate'. Complete with a deep, dark dubstep finale, this is pure raw fire. An immense body of work.
Review: His first fresh material since his album Intaference last year, the mysterious Ahmad returns with another lean, mean collab-heavy EP. "Singularity" launches the collection with its graveyard textures and roomy drum arrangement. "Clarion Call" sees him colliding with Gremlinz once again for one of his minimal moments to date; tribal yet sparse, drop this one very carefully. "Bricks" reminds us of Ahmad's dubbier side with its ocean-deep sub lines and readiness to rim shot when required. Finally Ahmad teams up with Dispatch collective DBR UK for the mentasm-primed jungle assault "Grinding Teeth". Bricks don't roll... They smash.
The Last Hero - "Simian King" (feat Loxy/Flatliners) - (6:00) 175 BPM
The Last Hero - "Roland Tembo" - (5:51) 58 BPM
The Last Hero - "Silent Hill" - (6:46) 58 BPM
The Last Hero - "Six Directions" (feat Ink) - (4:50) 58 BPM
Review: You can always rely on Ink's Architecture to deliver the deep stuff. Here we find London duo The Last Hero returning to the imprint with their own sweaty, intense, animalistic (literally in some places) signature. Last spotted on AR over two years ago, here we find them in heads-down tribal mode: "Simian King" contains a whole zoo of found sounds coded deep into the dense atmospheres, "Roland Tembo" is all about the tripped out percussive complexities while "Silent Hill" is a mangrove swathing adventure through dense forestation. Finally we find them hooking up with Ink for the purring sub-fuelled finale that is "Six Directions". Heroic.
Local Heroes - "Ucho" (Psyek remix) - (6:06) 58 BPM
Msm - (5:44) 173 BPM
Psyek - "Atarax" - (5:59) 57 BPM
Psyek - "Sanity Check" - (5:49) 172 BPM
Review: A love letter from the Czech Republic: Architecture represent two of the country's most exciting soldiers with this four-track co-lab opus. First up is a Psyek take on Local Heroes four-year-old banger on Deafmute. Softening the harsher designs and air of paranoia for something more rolling and deeper, it's an exemplary update. Deeper into the EP we hit "MSM", a radar-sampling space exploration soundtrack with some genius-level vocal sample mangling. For the final two cuts Psyek goes solo; "Atarax" starts with a liquid whisper before screaming with industrial strength subs and snares before "Sanity Check" twists your perceptions with Loxy-level dub science on the bass and kicks.
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you've provided to them or that they've collected from your use of their services.