It is a rather hot piece of iron, which Hessle Audio lifted out of the fire with their new 12". Although not all of the four tracks on »HES021« are equally strong, there is a clearly palpable fresh breeze coming from this release. »Dust March« especially is an example of this new sound, which is just starting to bloom throughout the UK. It is a sort of extremely slowed down Techno Dub, with pretty rough sound aesthetics, no melodies, no bells and whistles. Instead, it’s unheard-of sounds, scattered throughout the whole length of a track and beats peeling out of their reduced form and stretching into the complex. Alongside Bandshell (no idea who’s actually behind this name), the equally spectacular debut by Darling Farah on Civil Music will blow that same trumpet. Of course, these youngsters know what to do with Actress, Monolake or STL – but there is more. The tempo is increasing on »Rise’Em«, but it hovers in the same airless space and stops at Team Shadetek in 2004, just with less Hip Hop. Even less melody. Yes, that’s possible. It’s only on »Metzger«, where melodious sounds start to be audible, a rhythmically interesting track, but its melodies paste over the ears before they can hear the consistently excellent sound. »Dog Sweater« once again reduces the melodies, but plays with a sample (seemingly Wiley) and Gabba-rhythms. The two tracks on the flip side aren’t meant to be more than exercises in style. That’s just fine, as the front side is filled with tracks that could well set the benchmark. I do somehow get the feeling that this could be the case here.
Dust March
