Livity Sound - Livity Sound

Label: Livity Sound

It’s not easy for a label to gain prominence in today’s saturated market, particularly when a new imprint seems to spring up every fortnight. Bristol’s Livity Sound stands as a masterful example in how to run things: a small group of artists (the ouput seems restricted to the three label-heads) who offer different slants on a brave, singular sound – if the music’s good enough, that’s all you need. Yet the Livity crew go one further: the trio are the brightest bastion of a ‘local scene’ in the UK, and over the last few years they’ve been bringing their town’s soundsystem tradition blazing into the future over a series of disarmingly consistent, club-tooled singles.

The three brains behind the operation are Bristol veteran Pev, rising star Kowton and relative newcomer Asusu, and together these players have worked to re-set the bass-wise meditations of early DMZ in taut techno moulds, resulting in what is unanimously some of the most vital dance music currently being produced. For the label’s first collaborative album the Livity Crew’s limited editions are compiled over nearly two hours of breathtaking sound, making for one of the year’s most essential releases.

As Kowton once stated in interview, there’s nothing superfluous about the Livity sound. The tracks are largely exercises in rhythm, purpose-built for the dancefloor, yet the most surprising aspect of the Livity Sound LP is just how well it works as an album. Thoughtfully sequenced (the release’s two discs are bookended by the label’s first release, alternate takes on the same track by Kowton and Pev), these percussive workouts turn hypnotic in the home, toying with the idea of function and allowing their intricacies and subtleties space to unfurl and breathe. While for many compilations the sudden availability of high-quality mp3s is the reason for purchase, here it’s just the icing on the cake: this is a work that deserves to be heard as a whole as well as being pulled apart for mixes.

Album Clips

The Livity Sound LP appears like a distant transmission; the group’s sound so fully formed, the individual practitioners so united in their approach. This breeds a sense of otherness which is only strengthened by the glyphs on the cover (which in fact landed Pev in some hot water recently), while evocative track titles such as Remnants, Erosions or End Point call to mind the deterioration of powerful civilisations. This decline is translated musically to the shards of grime, jungle and dubstep which course across the release, gifted new life by rugged techno exoskeletons, transposed to powerful alien territory. In keeping with both the label’s ominous mystique and the fall of British soundsystem tradition, a deep dread occupies some of the release’s most impressive cuts, from the swampy menace of Vapours to the systems breakdown of new cut Surge.

The package, and by extension the label, stand out for the unity of these artists’ visions, yet within the Livity sound each of the trio has a markedly distinct approach. Pev, reliable frontrunner of the UK scene for many a year, trades in tricky percussive mutations, whether going for the jugular on anthemic Kowton collab Raw Code or mesmerising the listener with the ever-mutating strains of Saltwater and Aztec Chant. Later his tracks hit a sustained high note on the second disc’s latter half, End Point’s dystopic scifi terrain proving one standout moment amongst many. Kowton wears grime influences boldly on his sleeve, adorning More Games’ rough drum workout with venomous strings, and taking a muscular approach on the utilitarian Jam 01. His approach may be the most confrontational, but Kowton’s versatility is evident from the off: on his surprisingly spacious mix of Beneath Radar a decayed string sample is stretched out with palpable yearning before an anxious drum pattern batters its way into the mix. Well-represented is the relatively unknown Asusu, whose distinctive application of the Livity sound to 4/4 techno provides many of the release’s standout moments. The force of Velez relies on its stark nature, while the insectoid ambience of penultimate track Too Much Time Has Passed makes for a darkly pensive final sequence.

The Livity Sound crew are masters of percussion, and as a result when they let a melody loose it really counts. Those grime strings of More Games prove an early highlight but there are more surprise moments of colour: the soft insistence of the synthwork on Asusu’s Rendering makes for a tasteful moment of polish poised against Livity’s otherwise raw sounds, while the jangling chords which interrupt Livity’s maniacally sinuous bassline make for – if forced to pick one – the LP’s most memorable moment.

Livity Sound’s output to date has been incredibly impressive, but when packaged together it’s enchanting and utterly consuming. The unerring consistency of the tracks – there’s barely a single dud to be found in 18 songs of six-plus minutes – stands as testament to the coherent vision and staggering talent of these three producers. With the inclusion of some forthcoming releases which are just as promising, this is more than a victory lap for the collective, it’s a mission statement. In the dance realm, there’s very little that’s more exciting than hearing a group of artists at the top of their game, thinking as one, and Livity Sound is most likely the best example of this that you’ll hear all year.

9/10

Visionist - Snakes

Label: Leisure System

All hail the 4/4, the age of house and techno is upon us. Dubstep and garage have long lost their mojo, juke is too leftfield and ‘bass music’ has sold its soul to the pop machine. Excuse the hyperbole, but however irritatingly trendy house might be at the moment, its hard to argue with the fact that much of today’s most interesting dance music is anchored by a predictable kick drum. Yet as a nation who has always pushed dance music forward, this poses a problem: the UK has relatively little traction in the domains of house and techno. We can make it, we can even shift it up a notch, but genres like garage, grime and dubstep have British DNA flowing through their melodic veins, and a definitive UK sound is missing from today’s underground.

Enter Blackdown and Dusk’s reliable Keysound imprint alongside a slew of fresh producers who are bringing grime into this decade. After a few years in exile, consigned to the twin hells of commercialisation and creative stagnancy, the genre now seems poised to make an impressive comeback – just look at Keysound’s This Is How We Roll compilation for an anatomy of some of the most exhilarating, unpredictable dance music around. Riding the crest of this wave is London’s Visionist, who over the last year has risen from cookiecutter Swamp81 pretender to a genuine threat to your sanity, his ambition climactically validated in a stunning Rinse mix comprised entirely of his own tracks.

Snakebite

Now Visionist takes to Berlin’s Leisure System imprint with some of his best material to date, showing a playful, experimental streak writ large over three seductively off-kilter grime explorations. The EP is certainly a case of variations on a theme, but each effort is so beguilingly unpredictable that no one would criticise for a lack of variety. The grime nods are all over Snakes with its tough kicks and cocked-gun percussion, but Visionist quickly moves away from familiar territory when a seasick vocal and hi-def chimes turn the track into a woozy, unstable trip. Snakebite takes the percussive abstraction a step further, as a disorientating swirl of shots, clicks and colourful 8bit streaks are painted like treacle over a bed of softened bass hits.

Visionist ends the triptych with the most seductive number of the three, the Zomby-esque Poison, where the psychedelic blur of percussion plays second fiddle to a hypnotic system of crystalline synthlines and ghostly chipmunk vocals. While all three tracks approach the same sounds from a different angle, in his finest release to date Visionist has crafted something dangerously vital; a package of slippery future-grime just as likely to disorientate as it is to intoxicate.

8/10

Zomby - With Love

Label: 4AD

While some critics may think that Zomby’s notorious personality is not relevant to a discussion of his music, one might equally argue the opposite. The obnoxious web presence is perhaps not wholly unmerited, masking as it does a producer who is eminently talented. At the same time, the infamous no-shows at headlining spots across his career correlate neatly with an artist who rarely finishes his own tracks, instead releasing albums of beautiful sketches which range from tantalising to frustrating in their brevity. On With Love, his third full length (and second for major indie label 4AD), Zomby’s character is more pertinent than ever; as the album’s first disc could almost be called a summary of the producer’s evolving style over the last half decade.

It’s testament to Zomby’s musicality and his unique voice that he has legions of fans despite the notoriety: the man makes good music. Yet still, With Love is a something of a hard sell. 33 tracks stretched over two discs - parts of the album show Zomby at his best, yet as a whole the LP is somewhat unwieldy. Some may find the abundance gratifying: if you’re going to keep all the songs under four minutes in length, you may as well offer a lot of them. On the other hand, it’s difficult not to feel that trimmed down to the fifteen finest, With Love could be one of the year’s best albums. It will ultimately come down to a question of individual taste, but there is undeniably a lot to love here.

Ascension / Sunshine In November / Overdose / Memories

With Love’s first disc offers a cross-section of Zomby’s musical history, from the ravey breaks of Where Were U In ’92? on Overdose and 777 to the delicate darkness of Dedication recalled on If I Will. Being Zomby, there is of course the obligatory RnB sample, here on Rendezvous, where Brandy's voice is turned distant and anaesthetised. It’s a nocturnal, sometimes unsettling listen, where the mood can stray from urgent to calm within seconds, conjuring an effective dissonance. In what is becoming a trademark, the album deals in myriad references to the UK’s hardcore continuum; here jungle and hardcore rub shoulders with grime and garage, all woven into a sound indisputably Zomby’s own.

The disc hits its stride with Horrid, all tunnelling bass hits and bristling, paranoid synthwork. From here is a run of some of the artist’s best work to date; If I Will’s urgent vocal is set over a field of cheap grime strings and crystalline xylophone-esque melodies, through the low-slung lope and glittering piano of Isis to the dazed breaks of It’s Time. The disc reaches its zenith with Memories, a delicately-crafted duel between soft and hard synthwork, set over a military beat pattern. Yet after this, With Love’s first disc seems to lose its edge. Aside from the mournful darkness of Pray For Me, the same ideas are reworked with less flair, giving the disc’s second half the distinct taint of excess.

Soliloquy

The album’s second disc looks further to Zomby’s future as an artist, but it doesn’t venture that far from his established sound. Here the familiar atmospheres, forged by fragile synthwork painted in bright digital strokes, are supported by skittering 808 percussion, like a tasteful zombification of the current trap trend. These tracks are at their best when Zomby grows introspective, and the run from Reflection In Black Glass to Sunshine In November is where the majority of the disc’s highlights are hidden. These two beautiful beatless sketches are ruthlessly brief, but stunning nonetheless. They also sandwich album highlight Soliloquy, the closest With Love gets to an actual song with a real sense of structure, progression and melodic richness.

The complexity of this late-album highlight illuminates just how impressive Zomby’s work can be when it’s simple: for the album’s best 40-odd minutes he works with just a few sonic layers and practically zero structural progression yet the results are utterly enchanting. Some may justifiably call this album excessive, or denounce the brief tracks as lazy sketches, but since Dedication Zomby’s music has been something that demands to be taken on its own terms. Perhaps the magic of his productions depends on these qualities: if Zomby sat down to write ten 6-minute tracks as a coherent album, would the end result be this good? This reviewer thinks not. With Love is the latest beautiful, messy release from an increasingly singular artist, who deserves to be appreciated because of, rather than despite, his flaws.

7.5/10

Palace – Trust

Label: Unknown To The Unknown

White Noise’s favourite label of 2012, DJ Haus’ eclectic and hyperactive UTTU, have their fingers in a lot of pies. Careening wildly from garage to electro, jungle to grime, the diversity of their output is matched only by the tunes’ astonishing energy. That said, the majority of the best releases from the UTTU camp have recalled the early-2000s bassline garage sound, the meaty sub-bass experiments that recall grime at its dirtiest that can be found on the label’s ace Tales From The Darkside compilation or Palace’s last release, Mandy.

Trust can be seen as a sequel of sorts, refining the sound of the producer’s earlier release while continuing to court the more excitable, leftfield sides of the dancefloor. The original mix is the best cut on here, taking no time to get started over a dusty 2step beat pattern that’s all snappy snares and twitching hi-hats. The centrepiece is an immaculately programmed bassline that scarcely repeats a phrase of its winding melody throughout the track. It’s a perfect example of one of those rare, showstopping elements that can make everyone on the dancefloor stand up and take notice, and the addition of a smattering of fragmenting diva cries only enhances the effect.

Trust

In-house remixes come courtesy of MATRiXMANN and scene stalwarts Mista Men to varying degrees of success. The former clips that monstrous bassline down to its core elements, adding a serrated bassline wobble and punchier beats, but the removal of the original cut’s key element leaves the tune feeling a little hollow, as if the fun’s been taken out of it. Garage duo Mista Men, whose excellent Forget U featured on our Best Tracks of 2012, offer a more impressive take on the tune. Laying down one of their signature 2step rhythms, the bassline is brought down to frequencies that will threaten even the meatiest bass bins, resulting in a more propulsive and danceable version of the title track that admittedly still feels a little less remarkable.

With two out of three of these tunes sure to destroy any dancefloor, the only question DJs will be left asking is how much they want to stand out. UTTU have thus far excelled at providing cuts that are more than a little different, and Palace’s exceptional bassline outing is an excellent start to what promises to be another year of stellar releases.

7.5/10

Dusk + Blackdown – Dasaflex

Label: Keysound

It’s surprising, given how long Dusk (Dan Frampton) and Blackdown (excellent UK dance chronicler Martin Clark) have been involved in the UK dance scene that their joint output has come thus far to just over a single LP. Admittedly the pair have had a lot on their plates; Blackdown writes eloquently on the contemporary dance scene while the pair also run the excellent Keysound label, home to superb recent LPs courtesy of LHF, Sully and Damu. Their debut, Margins Music, proved a conceptual and innovative dissection of the dance scene circa 2008, and with Dasaflex the pair appear to cast a similar net. Here they once more offer an impressively varied assessment of current trends, but unlike on their debut the duo seem to hesitate to push its boundaries.

High Road

Dasaflex starts strong and mostly continues that way but offers few surprises. After the spacious and atmospheric opener Lonely Moon (Android Heartbreak), the pair begin to hop between clearly delineated genres fluently and proficiently but all too often fail to offer anything that feels that new. As a result, the tunes that sound a little different are, unsurprisingly, the best. The singular standout High Road, most likely a Burial collaboration (have you heard those beats) showcases canned 2step beats that flex under deep atmospherics and an inspired 4-note melodic progression that stylishly dominates the latter half of the track. Elsewhere the pair are most on form at their most experimental; the wonderfully weird R In Zero G is a Blackdown solo piece that combines rapid percussive twitches with mind-fraying melodic interruptions, while Dusk’s closer Fraction, which calls to mind Keysound labelmate Double Helix of LHF, is all noir synths and breakneck garage rhythms that get the pulse racing.

Dasaflex

That’s not to say that all the less experimental tracks on here are bad, either. Specifically title track Dasaflex is a powerful slab of UK Funky, replete with bouncing beats and a wandering bassline which is complimented perfectly by a melodic series of vocal snippets. Yet many of the other tunes can feel overlong and fail to hold attention throughout their runtime, with tunes like ballsy rave-referencing number Wicked Vibez and the bland Next Generation proving loud but instantly forgettable.

The London sound is very much here and Dasaflex is still a worthwhile album in that respect, but all too often it feels as if the pair are paying tribute to the dance canon rather than pushing it forward. Ultimately it appears that the duo are looking more into the present than the future and the LP suffers as a result; it lacks the conceptual cohesion of their debut and doesn’t quite offer enough memorable tracks to make it worth repeated listens.

 6.5/10