March’s sunny spells have seen strands of grime bubbling up, with Four Tet and Terror Danjah collaborating in addition to Ruff Sqwad’s Dirty Danger dropping a load of vocal bombs. Add to that some footwork, industrial hip hop and down-tempo house and you’ve got the eight dance singles and EPs that we’ve been especially excited about recently.
(Click the image above to scroll through the covers of the releases below)
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FOUR TET + TERROR DANJAH
‘Killer’ / ‘Nasty’
(TEXT)
Pinch yourself, you’re not dreaming: Four Tet and Terror Danjah pair better than steak and peppercorn sauce. Let loose on Mr Tet’s own TEXT imprint, this two-tracked slab of wax should probably be illegal. ‘Killer’ and ‘Nasty’ take the ruff ‘n’ ready vibe present in the former’s ‘Kool FM’, pumping in Danjah’s bassline belching over Hebden’s shrewd palette. Lethal.
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DEFT
‘Always Greener’
(WOTNOT MUSIC)
Croydon footwork extraordinaire Deft has a ‘good chance of getting you pregnant right in the good old music hole’. Or so his press release reads, and who are we to argue? Bubbly Chi-style and jungle juke is the order of the day on this slick five-tracker, which bursts with frenetic energy… presumably the sound you’d get if you gave a 10-year-old some amphetamines and let them loose on a drum machine.
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EVIAN CHRIST
‘Waterfall EP’
(TRI ANGLE)
Kanye’s main man Joshua Leary is an unstoppable force right now. Having been clapped on the back for the neck-snapping ‘Salt Carousel’, the remainder of the EP channels an icy shock of hip-hop drums and abrasive attitude, informed by ambient and noise music. From the stealthy creeper ‘F*ck Idol’ to the bullet monsoon at the end of ‘Waterfall’, it’s another clear victory for Tri Angle.
Related: read our extensive Evian Christ interview
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CLARK
‘Superscope’
(WARP)
Some say brutal, industrial techno’s having a revival right now. Some say it never went away. Who cares? Warp’s Clark heads straight for the darkest corner of the club with the eye-watering title cut, then explores a fantastical, astral plane on B-side ‘Riff Through the Fog’. Cementing those hypnotic, dark tech sensibilities, it’s great to see more material from Chris Clark.
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FANTASTIC MR FOX
‘On My Own’
(BLACK ACRE)
The Fox returns to his old stomping ground yet again to offer up two works of powerful club potential. Already leaked by Jamie xx late last year, the leading cut orbits around the tones of rising folk paladin Denai Moore, but it’s B-side ‘Broke’ that steals our hearts, jacking away happily under a breathless vocal.
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LEON VYNEHALL
‘Music For The Uninvited’
(3024)
Is it an EP? Is it an album? Well, actually it’s neither – Leon Vynehall has collected together seven tracks meant to mimic a journey in his mum’s car, since radio play is what introduced him to Janet Jackson, The Style Council, and everything in-between. Portsmouth’s finest export winds through down tempo beats and Dilla-sampling house banger ‘It’s Just (House of Dupree)’. If this is what being uninvited is like, we’re totally cool with missing the party.
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PRINCE RAPID
‘Turning Point EP’
(RUFF SQWAD ENTERTAINMENT)
Ten years of involvement as member of East London’s notorious grime crew and Prince Rapid inaugurates the new Ruff Sqwad Entertainment label. Casting a glance outside of E3, Rapid draws in elements of Ghanaian hip-hop and electronica on this EP, with production coming from Teddy and Ghetts, and JME contributing bars. A new release, yet informed by years at the top of the grime ladder.
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MY PANDA SHALL FLY
‘No Secrets’
(CREAKED RECORDS)
Dipping his long beard yet again into cerebral electronic waters is MPSF’s Suren Seneviratne, for a gorgeous extended play on Switzerland’s Creaked. ‘Japanese Woman’ literally does martial arts in your eardrums with war cry samples while ‘Goonz’ mines that post-dubstep/future-garage K-hole and ‘SSIM’ takes shape as a hush-hush, mellow house burner.
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Words: Felicity Martin
No clips above? That’s because we couldn’t find them. Doesn’t mean they’re not out there if you want to sniff about.
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