Machine Gun Militia :: Open Fire EP (Oeuvre)

An atmospheric blend of introspective moodiness, ominous and magnificent soundscapes, and most of all, heavy growling bass.

The more I listen to this EP the more I like it. That’s not to say I didn’t like it upon first hearing it, I did. There is something really balanced about these tracks, the beats are well thought out and crispy, and when the bass kicks in it is deep and heavy. It instantly gets the head nodding when that first drop hits, coming as it does out of the murky ambience the dominates the intro. If this was a collection of banging bass heavy floor fillers, it would be working fine, but a few listens in, and I’m realising that it is much more then that.

The work that has gone into creating the sinister soundtrack style beds of sound that subtly pervade the EP is impressive. There are a lot of processed strings and various orchestral sounds layered up to form cinematic washes that would fit very nicely into any number of films, albeit the darker themed ones, or maybe those high budget TV thriller series that feature glamourous detectives or crime scene investigators investigating gruesome cases with lots of tense scenes. It quite reminds me of Amon Tobin actually, one of the great masters of atmosphere creation through sonic manipulation. As I said, the more I listen to this EP, the better it gets, which can be a rare thing in the modern arena of heavy bass music. This veers dangerously close to experimental areas, but always tempers these forays into the dark outer reaches of the listening spectrum with timely drops of pounding bass and great beat programming.

An atmospheric blend of introspective moodiness, ominous and magnificent soundscapes, and most of all, heavy growling bass. The beats are pretty tidy too! Seriously, if you have any interest in progressive bass heavy dance music, this is a must have. With the complexity of Amon Tobin and the bass manipulation skills of Kode9, Machine Gun Militia have produced an EP that stands out a mile. Can I call it dubstep? Maybe, but it’s the thinking man’s (or woman’s) dubstep, and it’s also the bass lover’s dubstep—it’s just really good dubstep and a good pair of headphones will help.

Open Fire is available on Oeuvre. Buy at iTunes, Amazon or Juno.