Listening to Prototype on either headphones or a home hi-fi simply won’t cut it, as you’ll never fully understand what this record will do to you when unleashed on a punishing club system, whereupon you’ll have no choice but to lurch around the dancefloor and make the most hideous of gurning bassfaces.
The German electronic label Ad Noiseam, which will be celebrating a decade at the forefront the underground music scene early next year, has been pushing its own take on the huge dubstep sound for about a year or so now, with European heavyweight acts like Niveau Zero, Hecq and Broken Note being the prime suspects. Yet, while these artists blend dubstep’s bass pressure and midrange terror with all manner of different influences from other genres, it’s fair to say that London-based duo, Matta, are the most straightforward, balls-to-the-wall dubstep producers the label has released so far.
Listening to Prototype on either headphones or a home hi-fi simply won’t cut it, as you’ll never fully understand what this record will do to you when unleashed on a punishing club system, whereupon you’ll have no choice but to lurch around the dancefloor and make the most hideous of gurning bassfaces. And herein lies its true purpose – it’s a record made by DJs, and judging by the content, it’s primarily intended for DJs. For evidence of this claim, simply head over to Matta’s SoundCloud page, where you’ll find a superbly mixed preview of Prototype, with all ten tracks being shown in their aggressively hedonistic best light.
The album opens up with the previously released “Mass,” which featured as a B-side on Matta’s first Ad Noiseam 12” The Lost (ADN126) – there’s also a brilliant promo video for the track that’s well worth checking out. It’s one of the record’s best cuts, for sure, beginning with dark organ sounds, plinking harps and a choral female vocal sample, before launching into a full-on exploration of throbbing basslines. It’s powerful stuff, with up to four or five different bass sounds competing for attention and seamlessly intertwining. The second track, “Chaos Reigns,” another tune previously released on wax as a B-side to Release The Freq (ADN137), continues in a similar vein, with Matta showing off their uncanny ability to produce endless bassline variations and sometimes throw in a superb drum edit or two for good measure.
“Stuttering Suicide,” the fourth track on Prototype, gives us the first indication that the pair can do more than straight dubstep. The beats infuse 2-step with glitchy electronica and the vibe is surprisingly quite mellow throughout, with short bass stabs punctuating a pleasing soundscape made up of drifting pad sounds. In fact, after being repeatedly bludgeoned by the first three tracks, it offers a welcome respite before the crushing kicks and snares comes back with abandon for much of the rest of the album.
Here’s the rub, though. When listening to each of the ten tracks offered up here in one session, they quickly start to resemble each other, with little change in the overall sound or structure, especially on the last four or five tunes. The DJ orientated approach also begins to grate somewhat, with a little too much repetition of the same drops in tracks – this is perfect when spinning in a club, as you don’t want anything unexpected to happen when mixing, but as a home listening experience, it falls short. The thing that really holds this album back, though, is the distinct lack of truly memorable hooks – in fact, there are hardly any decent lead sounds to be found anywhere on the entire record. After many, many listens, the tracks simply merge into one long, hazy recollection of heavy beats and basslines, only broken occasionally by some atmospheric intros and breakdowns.
Nevertheless, the future is bright for Matta. They are still on the rise and clearly very gifted producers, with a keen ear for the kind of frenzied basslines that drive dancefloors mental. Matta are also a DJing force to be reckoned with and their ridiculously heavy sound should easily hold its own within bass scenes the world over, even within the hardest of South London dubstep circles. Ad Noiseam will no doubt continue to push this glitch-infused dubstep sound to the label’s loyal fanbase, too, so Matta are in good hands. It’s going to be interesting to see if they will take the bait, push their sound into more experimental territories and produce something a little more special next time.
[audio:http://igloomag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/05-Sura-Remix-By-Mata.mp3|titles=Matta “Sura (Remix By Matta)”]Prototype is out now on Ad Noiseam. [Listen | Purchase]
