RECOMMENDED: DJ Dom – Sunshowers/You Can’t See Me [Blunted Robots]

DJ Dom may have made his debut for the on form PTN label late last year, with four lush slices of flexible house music, but now he’s stepping out on Brackles and Shortstuff’s excellent Blunted Robots label. Joining the impressive roster of releases from the likes of Mickey Pearce, Martin Kemp and Night Slugs very own Bok Bok, Dom’s 12” may well be the smoothest Blunted release yet, taking queues from the deeper side of house and playing it off rawer UK vibes. It echoes the current sets from Rinse FM regular Brackles, who seems to be really enjoying exploring this side of things more and more of late.

It proper sounds like summer is on the way when the hazy good time vibes of ‘Sunshowers’ rolls in, all laid back warm chords, supple bumpy percussive kicks and snatched hits. First heard on Brackles' 'Songs For Endless Cities Mix' the screwed vocals give a woozy air to the track and the dubbed-out organ stabs and echoing bass squelches really bring that brightness alive, living up to the epiphany hinted at in the title. The drawn out heavy EQ sections where the track gets cut out into nothing but highs is pure vibes too, building expectation perfectly. The flip rolls out on a similar tip though ‘You Can’t See Me’ skips and builds with more urgency thanks to the dubby pads, twisted synth smears and fragments of 8-bit bleeps that shatter across the track. It’s the deep sub stabs, acid bubbles and flexible beats that root it to the floor while the synths take you up into those airy, blissed-out territories.

Sitting somewhere in the UK neverland where the likes of DJ Naughty and Martin Kemp can coexist without to much squabbling, Dom’s first outing on Blunted Robots can sit nicely next to the soulful side of Smoove Kriminal or T.Williams just as well as it does here.

Words: James Balf
Out: 7th Feb



Link:
www.bluntedrobots.com

DOWNLOAD: Mickey Pearce - Mickey's Car Boot [Blunted Robots]

We've made no bones of our love for the work of Brackles & Shorstuff over the past few years, interviewing both and keeping in regular contact since the early days of our webspace. To celebrate the launch of their own home on the internet (complete with resplendent artwork courtesy of Wigflex boss man Spam Chop), the dynamic duo are giving a way a free EP from the first artist to release on the label, the faceless, Mickey Pearce. Its three tracks of bootlegs reportedly created by robbing "the work of people more fortunate than himself and passing it off as his own."

Working over Ms Dynamite and Redlight's 'What You Talking About' and JME's 'CD is Dead' with a bonus clip that attacks Wiley's 'It's Wiley' (who according to RWD mag is back making music ready for a release once again on Big Dada) in his own manic, big big drum, ADHD infested style it's time for Mickey to step up from the shadow's joining the ranks of his Blunted Robots brethren, forever immortalised on these here pages.

DOWNLOAD: BLRD001 - Mickey's Car Boot
(when you subscribe to the BR mailing list/previews below)



Look out for forthcoming Blunted Robots material from Brackles, Dark Sky and DJ Dom before the end of March.

Link:
www.bluntedrobots.com

PRE-ORDER: Mickey Pearce – Innami/Martin Kemp – No Charisma [Blunted Robots]

Blunted Robots is a brand new label run by two young upstarts, Brackles and Shortstuff. Whilst both enjoying success with their own releases, Brackles on Planet Mu and Applepips and Shortstuff on Ramp, they’ve combined their passion for future sounds and skwee melodies with a want to own and release records that overlap the fringes of funky, garage and dubstep; and this first release reflects this perfectly.

‘Innami’ is a rough and ready bashment style house track with broken riddims and full on vocals. It’s full of energy brought on by the freaked out bass pulses and deranged synth lines that twist into warped waves and bleeped out shapes. Mickey Pearce has here constructed a rudeboy hybrid of mutant funky and computer bashment that would undoubtedly make his Nan the proudest grandmother in all the land.

The flip ‘No Charisma’ by Martin Kemp has been making a lot of noise and getting plays from everyone from Cooly G to his sibling Brackles and beyond. It’s a futuristic take on funky with dub wise sensibilities; the broken beats skip and bump with a chunky, punchy precision whilst the synth lines shimmer and evolve from meek pads into sheets of pure Detroit dancefloors. The main hook is erratic, squalling round its pitches like a petulant bulldog with mad energy, but it’s the main combo of deep space bass and succulent percussion that makes it such an essential purchase.

Words: James Balf/Oli Marlow
Out: Now

Link:
www.myspace.com/bluntedrobots