If anything it’s a wonder that Hessle Audio and Peverelist haven’t hooked up before. The Hessle crew, with its superhuman ear for a genre-defining tune, and Peverelist at the helm of his similarly impeccable Punch Drunk imprint, both surfaced in 2007 with unique, envelope-pushing takes on the dubstep template. Both camps have since continued to breathe new life into UK bass music at every turn, being key players in the scene’s recent descent into housier climes. This release doesn’t disappoint.
Both tracks work through the kind of disorientating, quick-stepping percussive mosaics which have been Peverelist’s recent trademark (see 2010’s Better Ways Of Living/Fighting Without Fighting). But they’re infused with a new melancholia, lifted straight from the soundsystem culture so beloved of the producer’s native Bristol.
‘Dance Til The Police Come’ undermines the devil-may-care pronouncements of its title with washes of synthetic paranoia and taut, twitching drumwork. Through all the scattershot snaredrums and grids of restless hi-hats, it almost seems like we’ll be permanently locked in a state of pre-drop tension, until a wall of bowel-juddering sub is dropped neatly into the affair. In some ways this is a pure dread stepper, but it’s underwritten with uniquely perverse levels of syncopation.
‘Fundamentals’ finds itself in a similar state of suspense, stretching dubwise melodica chords into molten echo trails over the requisite low end pressure. Definitely the deeper of the two, Peverelist takes the opportunity to push his rhythmic ingenuity to new heights – good luck to DJs trying to find their bearings with this one in the heat of the dance.
This 12” will be a must for all the usual crowd – not quite DJ tools (certainly not for the faint-hearted), but worthy additions to the not-dubstep canon, and yet further proof that Hessle can’t put a foot wrong right now.