Given its remarkably similar sonic palette and mid-point climax, "The Shrew Would Have Cushioned the Blow" sounds like a restrained but unmistakably direct relative to 'Hyph', whose full-bodied thrust is spread more thinly over a beat well-suited to the current funky fare being pummelled by hotshots like Martyn and Appleblim. O'Grady's ubiquitous, yearningly chopped vocals sigh to the swell of synths before being stripped back by a split-second anticlimactic bass massage, an effect which allows "the shrew" to function blissfully as an air-clearing mid-set track transition after a sweaty skank workout.
"So Derobe" is a comparatively technical pacesetter employing a jerking, minimalist rhythm reminiscent of the sort of work previously put out by O'Grady's young contemporaries on Hessle Audio. As always, hooky vocals and bass stabs are weaved together in a flirty exchange, but (as with "Hyph") the track's hidden strengths lie in the gear-shifting capabilities offered by the dextrous high-end percussion.
The package's on-point credentials are consolidated with a typically tripped out remix from Werk's Actress, scattering his idiosyncratic ghostly machinations sparsely with "The Shrew"'s vocal lead and a bizarre spoken word sample about loving work and privacy. None of it makes any sense, but that's precisely how he gathered so many fans with last year's much-lauded Hazyville. Drawing its crackly wooze and clunk out over eight-and-a-half minutes, the "neu haus so glo" mix is an awkward mindfuck on the b-side of a single with obvious pop appeal, and as such is sure to be overlooked.
Appearing on Will Saul's Aus imprint is perhaps a bit of a curveball after O'Grady's previous work, but the relatively clean production and airiness explored in both of these tracks aren't wholly out of place against the label's usual deep 4/4 output. Instead, "The Shrew" should be received as a promising indication of how bass music might continue its voracious exhumation of the dance floor's subtler territories.
- Published /
Tue / 23 Feb 2010
- Words /