- Naming a label something as neutral and open to interpretation as "Bass Music" seems to invite presumptions of mediocrity or even worse, the dreaded middle-of-the-road syndrome. However, Bass Music is actually headed up by I.D., Bristol breaks kingpin and core cog of the Bass Music Blog commune, and he's responsible for the label's fourth release. Maybe it's his breakstep background, but Ed Bayling's dubstep tracks tend to clatter and clap with a certain precision only found in the cleanest of sterilized surgical metals, and these two are no different in that regard.
UK vocalist Rider Shafique guests on "The Light," which features an extremely tightly coiled drum pattern, where everything falls gently into all the right places. Cynics might call it predictable. But what stands out is the atmosphere: these beats gleam like reflective steel, and their clinks and clanks are echoed to magnificent extremes. Shafique's vocal adds a paranoid, inner-city vibe to the track, and underlines its sneakily anthemic build as it skitters underneath his intonations.
Improving on the formula is "Feudal," an orchestra of soot-blackened handclaps, the same creeping waves of low-end buffeting resonant plucked strings. By the time it reaches the second half with its propulsive top-heavy chords and orchestral undertones, its lurching movements sound powerful enough to take down a room from the inside. But for such eminently functional tracks, they work just as well as headphones material, where their wide-set soundstaging envelops like little other comparable dubstep.
TracklistA Feudal
B1 I.D. feat. Rider Shafique - The Light
B2 I.D. feat. Rider Shafique - The Light (Instrumental)