- Whether you've seen the devastating style and sheer speed of Rob Kemp mixing live or not, there's still a hell of a lot to appreciate in the contorted melodics of the man called Brackles' first full solo production releases. After two collaborations with Shortstuff on the Berkane Sol and Pollen imprints, this month sees him unleashing another pair of 12-inches on Planet Mu and Appleblim's Applepips label.
"LHC" is the undoubted highlight of his Mu single with the synth lines merging somewhere short of "Black Sun"-era Kode 9 and the graphic inner-ear worming riffs of Pearson Sound. The way he ups the tempo of his scale changes and twists his synths is truly awe-inspiring. When it breaks down and the high-pitched wails sing, it's easy to hear why Brackles is leading the pack of new school knob twiddlers who are transporting elements of dubstep away from their halfstep roots and into the depths of darkened, perspiration soaked dancefloors. The flip, "Sutorîta Faitâ," again uses a smattering of the uplifting synthesizers but with a rougher 2-step bassline that gets consistently pummeld by the array of snare drums, punch percussion and rhythmic glitches before it rolls out into a pure drum workout.
Brackles' EP for Applepips starts out similarly with "Get a Job," which takes the same style of overtly chirpy synthesizers and funked-up garage rhythms and swoons them out haphazardly with bursts of lush pads underpinning the ascending midrange bassline. On the flip, however, Kemp exposes a different side to his work: He rolls complex congas behind electronic squiggles and a taut bassline with a fizzing top end, while simultaneously proving that he's a master of using vocal stabs and sudden samples.
TracklistBrackles - LHC
A Brackles - LHC
B Brackles & Shortstuff - Sutorîtâ Faitâ
Brackles - Get A Job / Lizards
A Get A Job
AA Lizards