Breathing new life into the all too often self parodied genre of dubstep, Rebel Assault demands your attention with superbly crafted beats and dance rhythms that draw on the most basic human impulses from several millennia of human existence.
Rebel Assault is the second release from Machine Gun Militia on Nottingham based label Oeuvre. This follow up to the magnificently cinematic and hard hitting bashment/dancehall debut Open Fire picks up where its predecessor left off. Breathing new life into the all too often self parodied genre of dubstep, Rebel Assault demands your attention with superbly crafted beats and dance rhythms that draw on the most basic human impulses from several millennia of human existence.
This is a good development from their first EP, retaining the large cinematic sample laden feel that gives the material a sense of foreboding and large scale atmosphere, but upping the stakes elsewhere. The beats are crisp and constructed with perfectly selected source material, something which, as Brian Eno once suggested is one of the main skills of a modern composer. There is a real hint of The Bug (or Techno Animal if you’d rather) to the EP, which is no bad thing. Dark Dance/hall influenced bass music to get people moving such as this will surely find fans within the DJ fraternity.
There might be a slight lack of development in some of the tracks, “Leonov” and “Whale Probe” spring to mind, but this is only a slight criticism. The sound quality and infectious rhythms running throughout this collection makes up for anything lacking in the progression stakes. Dropped in the right context, any of these tracks will cause a riot. All in all, another outstanding effort from MGM, which puts a lot of similar releases to shame.
Rebel Assault is available on Oeuvre. [Buy at Juno]
