Under The Radar is a workable dancefloor banger but also certainly stands up extremely well on its own as a song. It has a sort of liquid DnB feel, but there is no doubt as to its true nature with guitar breakdowns aplenty, and very live drums.
[Release page] Dub Mafia, the seven piece band from Bristol who’s debut single Danger/Breakneck was covered in a band profile here are back with another one track pre album release. It’s another high energy live DnB styled affair with crunching guitars and chunky basslines, something that is a bit of a speciality of theirs. Singer Eva Lazarus leads the band and gives it a real commercial viability. That’s not meant in a negative way despite the connotations of the word commercial, more in the sense that she has a really strong voice that gives the band something that lifts them some way above the multitude of live dubstep/DnB acts out there. These are actual songs, and I can well imagine them being played on more mainstream radio stations for example.
I saw them play live at Brisfest a few weeks ago, and it has to be acknowledged that this is a real out and out chuck everything in the back of a van and tour the world band, not a studio project that has been taken out and worked into a live setting, but an actual band born and bred as a live act. The difficulty lies in trying to capture the energy they have on stage in the comparatively sterile environment of a recording studio. They are really impressive in front of a crowd, Eva is a great front, and the band are just solid.
And yes, this single does a good job of capturing that essence. It’s a workable dancefloor banger but also certainly stands up extremely well on its own as a song. It has a sort of liquid DnB feel, but there is no doubt as to its true nature with guitar breakdowns aplenty, and very live drums. Still a band despite the production slickness. Wait, is that a guitar solo I hear? Yes, very definitely a band.
Under The Radar is available via Bandcamp.
