- Moving even further away from the Vex'd moniker—a name he shared with a fellow dubstep producer, Roly, across the industrially lauded Degenerate album for Planet Mu—the man formerly known as Jamie Vex'd is now releasing music under the Kuedo guise. But while the name may be slightly different, Dream Sequence holds plenty of similarities to the In System Travel EP, namely the fact that the music on it is of the skewed hip-hop variety, rather than the oppressively heavy, soundsystem-testing dubstep type.
Marking his move into more fluorescent climes last year with his Sunday Walkman mixtape for the Lucky Me collective—which featured artists like Joker, Zomby and Darkstar alongside Cannibal Ox and Erykah Badu—Jamie hasn't looked back since, intently developing his production work into a fusion of off-key melodies, slow slumping drums and layers of sounds that are easy to lose yourself within.
Mixing pulsing pads with stylophone leads and erratic mid-range synth torture shouldn't work in theory, but "Starfox" is one of the best, fullest and most abrasively likeable tracks to come out on Planet Mu, or anywhere else for that matter, in months. Its slow churning drum cycle snatches at the notion of a metronome, hitting the beat that tiny bit late, jerking out from underneath his cascade of textures.
"Shutter Light Girl" is the beatless respite of the EP, twinkling like a seaside night sky with tidal breaths and mutilated pan pipes laying a calm aura for "Joy Construction." Sounding like it's been made out of one sung note that's been stretched and danced across the scales, "Construction" bounds from a squeal to a soothing hum in an instant, as Jamie plys his thick Joker-like bass textures around the riff, erratically peppering it with playful drips of up-pitched percussion. EP closer "Glow" focuses itself intently on the bass, tweaking out a taut manipulation of frequencies atop a slow drum knocking. Its synth washes and snatched vocals flitter in and out of earshot before the bass gets ADD and freaks over octaves, skittering joyfully, before Jamie winds down the EP to a close using the last minute of swirls and distant flanges brilliantly to bring the mood down.
An excellent addition to Vexd's catalogue, this is undoubtedly an essential release for fans of forward-thinking bass music.
Tracklist A1 Starfox
A2 Shutter Light Girl
B1 Joy Construction
B2 Glow