This week we run down a few of the stand out producers of 2011 with Rustie, Daphni and at number 1, Blawan.
3. RUSTIE ‘Glass Swords’ WARP
In the future, music theorists are going to have a fucking field day deconstructing Rustie’s nuclear fusion of melody shards and 8-bit rave. Inverted post-colonial race envy? Surfing the zeitgeist of an attention deficient disordered generation? Fuck off! Rustie is just dismantling trance and grafting it to the DNA of hip-hop to stop himself imploding. After obsessively taking shelter from the Hudmo, Glasgow, Numbers, Wonky storm he emerged from his Caledonian rave bunker startled by what he held in his hand. ‘Glass Swords’ looks to nothing except the sky where Rustie explodes his galactic-glitch-trance-explosions.
Best Bit: ‘Death Mountain’ hears Rustie’s bass drops become fully weaponised for our dancefloors.
2. DAPHNI Various Text/Rush Hour
Only ten months and five releases in, Dan Snaith’s Daphni project has followed some truly unpredictable twists and turns. Physically resonating through every corner of his prolific and hyperactive mind, Daphni’s short life-span has practically drawn a five-pointed ideogram through a fragmented landscape of electronic sub-genres; touching on everything from percolating afro-beat and primary-school disco-punk to darkly-tinted bass mutations and the enraptured techno of his most recent material. All of which he does with such style and self-confidence he knocks our socks off.
BEST BIT: The waterfall of analogue chords that crash in a barrage of darkness on ‘Ye Ye’
1. BLAWAN Various R&S / Hessel Audio
Of all the wave of young producers to sweep through the hallows of the underground dance scene this past year, no-one seems to have made an impact quite so solidly as Jamie Roberts, AKA Blawan. His musical trajectory thus far has seen him motor on down through innumerable sub-genres; from the percussive R&B sampling of his ‘Getting Me Down’ white label, to the liquid rhythms and caustic acid splashes of his R&S releases. “I don’t want to ever find one comfort zone to be honest,” explains Roberts. “Styles are pretty irrelevant too, as long as I’m happy with the tracks and had fun making them.”
Obviously not one to pander to trends, it’s quite indicative that Blawan should be one of the artists most representative of the current tendency in the UK underground. 2011 has, without a doubt, been the year that the bass continuum at large, and many producers born from the post-coital roots of dubstep, shifted their downturned gaze over to the robust 4×4 driven sounds of techno and house. However, Roberts stands out from the crowd, a true maverick at heart: “I don’t know much about the music industry and I’m happy to keep it that way.”
For someone from a generation that has pretty much grown up with the digital age, and all the homogeneity that comes with it, Roberts is a music-making purist, producing raw and primal house, made with the corporal needs of the dance floor always in mind. He is also reassuringly wary of digital music’s hold over more traditional formats. “I’m sure no-one thinks the Internet is a bad thing, however, as with the digital age of MP3s, I think it’s a good thing to strive for something better, a vinyl record for example.”
And strive for something better he does, persistently. We can’t wait to see what else his undoubtedly lengthy career holds.
BEST BIT: His cheeky bootleg of Brandy on ‘Getting Me Down’ showed Blawan’s deft vision in splicing jacking beats with scintilating space.
Follow the rest of our Top 15 Producers of 2011 across this week on ClashMusic.com.
