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LP
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LDN 072LP
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Keysound Recordings present a weightless album from label boss Blackdown. Those Moments is his first solo LP, features fellow Margins Music (LDN 014CD, 2009) contributors Trim, Dusk, and Farrah and, like the imprint's Rollage sub series, is centered at 130 bpm. Each of the tracks is a distillation of a fleeting moment. The tracks and LP itself are short and constrained, relying on only voices, synths, and sub bass. The album came about in a quick intense burst and many of the tracks represent snapshots of brief instances -- a bitter-sweet moment of inflection, a moment of positivity, digital over-stimulation, awe, loss, intensity, anger, nostalgia, regret, honesty, relief, and joy.
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12"
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LDN 070EP
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"C-Troit" is a name revived from a lost, unfinished track by Blackdown in the very earliest "roots" years of dubstep. A hybrid of the words "Croydon" and "Detroit", it's a heuristic for the place between Greater London's bass-lead music and the halcyon synths of early Detroit techno. Now that there's a growing body of dark, 130bpm-ish rollage, from within the Keysound Recordings camp and crews beyond, Rollage Vol.3 seeks to throw warm light into the shadows, with the tracks "Godlike Power", "Clueless" featuring Dusk, and "Halcyon Skies (Rollage Mix)".
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12"
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LDN 067EP
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All four tracks on Rollage Vol.2 are built from the same constrained sound palate and they center around a short audio recording made on a mobile phone at a Keysound Sessions club night in 2015, during a Riko and Kahn & Neek set. As well as using the same family of sounds, all four tracks - "Original", "Feverish Weightless", "Techrollage", and "8bar" mixes - roll at the same 130 BPM so they can be mixed into each other. But they also are designed to suggest a diversity of possible spaces, energies, and intensities within nominal constraints.
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12"
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LDN 002EP
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"Lata is the latest 12" from Blackdown aka Martin Clark, who is probably better known for his crucial musings on the dubstep/grime scene in his Blackdown blog, and also for his regular dubstep column on Pitchfork. This connection to the heart of the scene certainly gives Clark a clear advantage and is maybe why 'Lata' sounds so fresh. Pushing the scene one step forward, Clark injects his tracks with a skill and sense of composition rarely witnessed and the opening track 'Lata' showcases this beautifully; simple but effective beats are draped in thick stomach churning bass and a gorgeous Indian vocal. This is how street music should be; a true marriage of cultures, of sounds and of influences. Clark seems unphased by trends in the scene instead concentrating on a sound which could easily elevate him from dubstep and into the mainstream! Following on from this track is another treat, a remix from Hyperdub superstar Burial, whose debut album is of huge resonance to the dubstep scene. When speaking about acknowledging the music's recent past, he's talking primarily about old-school jungle, deep 2-step garage plates, dedicated underground producers. Burial's take on 'Crackle Blues' is compelling. Blackdown's own music remains strictly dubs -- a masterclass in the genre, clipped beats which would make the most respected electronic music producers blush and a street-smart London vibe which brings to mind dark alleys and half heard shouts from the distance; incredible music, from arguably the master of the genre. Lata is an EP set to change people's opinion on what is still a fresh sound, and something to get regular dubstep fans truly weak at the knees."
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