Putting out your debut label release is a big statement. Colouring in your imprint’s grandiose mission statement with just two cuts is a tough ask, but the Hull based Forefront guys seem to have straddled that quandary with ease on their first single - a split between the fractured personalities of Slackk and Hervey Jenkins.
Slackk, the obsessive figure behind the essential grime archive and resource, Grimetapes, has been turning his attention further towards UK funky of late, brining that grimey edge to his own productions - you may have caught on to his Wiley loving Eski-house experiments via his last 12” on the formidable Numbers or checked his beats all over the radio from Dusk & Blackdown and beyond… ‘Synthetic’ sees Slackk at his bumpin’ best, channelling the house aesthetic through his grimy lens. Rumbling echo drenched drums boom and bubble, whilst bleepy synth motifs twist with an urgent tension against some addictive shuffling hi-hats and bongo rhythms, that’ll definitely get you shaking a leg.
The flip comes courtesy of a mysterious garage don from way back when, Hervey Jenkins. He’s the kind of guy who’d give Chicago house legend Maurice Donovan and NY’s very own Frankie Solar a run for their money in a dance off, powering through the voguing until they were all down to their string vests. ‘Steelo’ is a sweaty slice of R&B chopped and flexed into a tough garage number that’ll have you skipping across the dance floor, champagne in one hand with fixed gun fingers on the other.
Words: James Balf // Out: Now via Rubadub
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