Overall, then, this release does more than a fair job of representing the Bristol underground dance sound on more levels than one, offering up some top notch, forward thinking bass music that doesn’t shy away from mashing genres, all lovingly presented with a deep, soulful vibe.
Louse Records is a relatively new UK dance imprint. Here, we see Louse stepping up to the plate with its third release, Overstep / Don’t Forget, which presents yet another take on the soulful, atmospheric, bass-driven music in which the label is fast building up a reputation. This time things are kept entirely Bristol based – Louse002, Kloudbreak’s The River, featured a remix by London producer, Mothboy. Thus, Bristolian electronic musician Will Andrews, otherwise known as Wascal, supplies both cuts, with each one good enough for this release to be considered a double A-side. There’s also some fitting cover artwork that depicts a panoramic view of the colourful, vibrant and immensely creative area of the city called Stokes Croft.
“Overstep” begins with sampled radio static that trails off into ambience, making way for a rather militant kick drum pattern complimented with some nice background atmospherics. At this point, it’s kind of hard to tell where the track might lead you, sounding at once like it could either go down the minimal techno or the ambient electronica route, and soon airy pad melodies start to come in from the back of the mix to again throw you off the scent. In fact, the kicks start to make more sense when an uptempo UK garage (or maybe that should be future garage) beat begins to form, with some supremely well-produced claps, snares and skipping percussion sounds filling out the groove very nicely indeed. On top of this, the initially subdued pads gradually swell up to dominate the mix, finally producing an ecstatic hands-in-the-air trance moment before a healthy dose of throbbing sub bass comes in to lash all the elements together and help give the track more dancefloor energy.
Cheeky synth melodies pop up throughout and some additional percussion sounds are dropped into the mix to keep the track flowing ever onwards towards the main drop. Surprisingly, and in quite a bold move, the track’s peak sees the beats and bass momentarily fall away to leave the main trance-style synth at the fore, playing a rather driving dubstep pattern with its filters lurching open to let the sound rage out of the speakers. After a couple of bars of this, the sound mellows out once again, and the beats are gradually brought back in to gently carry you out to the close of the track.
The second tune, “Don’t Forget,” fits in more with the modern breaks sound, a style in which Louse Records’ head honcho Kraymon is well known. And clearly the boss saw greatness in this track, with Andrews producing a wonderfully laid-back, dubby breaks track, with airy yet very funky syncopated drums, summery jazz-style guitar licks and an undercurrent of deep bass. Like the first cut, this one also exhibits some of dubstep’s fundamental characteristics with the head-nodding tempo and heavily reverberating snares, plus there’s some subtly wobbling bass sounds throughout, which gradually occupy more space in the mix as the track progresses. Rather than sticking to the aggressive bassline sound that dubstep is known for, though, Andrews manages to turn the style completely on its head and create rhythmic variations in the low end by constantly shifting the filters of the mellow synth sounds. All this leaves you with the impression that Andrews appreciates groove much more than raw power, and as a result he produces some very innovative yet wonderfully bass-heavy tunes.
Overall, then, this release does more than a fair job of representing the Bristol underground dance sound on more levels than one, offering up some top notch, forward thinking bass music that doesn’t shy away from mashing genres, all lovingly presented with a deep, soulful vibe. Great stuff.
Overstep :: Don’t Forget will be released in mid-February 2011 on Louse.
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