- The Night Slugs EP is the last release from Glasgow's Dress 2 Sweat label, which has made irreverent, party-starting records its stock-in-trade since 2007, while being one of the first physical releases to feature original tracks by Bok Bok, a London-based DJ and producer, best known for promoting the Night Slugs events which lend this EP its name. (The record also features the work of L-Vis 1990, who released the widely acclaimed "United Groove" on Diplo's Mad Decent earlier this year.)
The set as a whole reflects, and to an extent summarises, the various aspects of electronic music that have been preoccupying many British club producers for some time. It's a genuinely important record, and perhaps a bellwether for music to come: The duo reference house, garage, funky and hardcore, they combine the cavernous bass of dubstep with the synthetic textures of grime. The wild combinations which result suggest that UK club music has reached a crossroads, where multitude mongrel sub-genres will roam, waiting for the next dominant species to evolve.
Despite its myriad audible influences, Bok Bok's "NNTF09" is a sparse, efficient club tool, the track's maddening, whinnying synth and plummeting bass drops barely constrained within a basic framework of bashment kicks, embellished with fractured, clattering Baltimore breaks. The muscular pounding of carefully tuned toms and bass on "Ripe Banana" propels the record into more recognisably melodic territory, explored further by L-Vis with "Ride," on which a wheezing, hazy chord hovers between a major and minor key before succumbing to a petulant, churning bassline. The EP closes with "Run," built with exceptional economy from little more than a stabbing Hammond organ and fairly minimal percussion, the track's insistent vocal sample offering some welcome emotional accessibility.
Tracklist A1 Bok Bok - NNTF09
A2 Bok Bok - Ripe Banana
B1 L-vis 1990 - Run
B2 L-vis 1990 - Hide