Listening to Tectonic Plates it’s evident that Pinch (renowned DJ and label owner) is one of the most influential figures in the dubstep scene, because many big names allowed to release some of their best tunes on this imprint. MRK1, Digital Mystikz, Loefah, they’re all here and with impressive material, but the most striking example is Skream’s “Bahl Fwd:” the guy releases at least a (wicked) 12″ once a week, but “Bahl Fwd” is well above his excellent standard and it’a personal favourite of mine. Everything is perfect: snappy beat, sine-wave bassline, voodoo tribal percussions and a melody that’s more catchy than an Abba hit single. And then you get an entire disc full of goodies, Distance’s “Temptation” is one of the best eastern spiced dubstep tunes I’ve ever heard, mysterious and creepy as it should be done; DQ1 goes minimal, borrowing some hardcore jungle snippets under a monolithic bass, MRK1 slows down the pace, grabbing your attention with his trademark acid hooks, while Loefah and Digital Mystikz show their instantly recognizable skills. The former stretches reverb to infinite decaying time, thus creating an ominous echo chamber where bass frequencies resonate and technoid percussions bounce; the Digital duo focus instead on cinematic strings and a steppy, dub beat
From the liner notes it seems that Armour is an alias for one half of Vex’d, and indeed his “Iron Man” features those distorted bass and drums distinctive of the Planet Mu duo; another essential tune is Pinch & P Dutty’s “War Dub,” from the very first Tectonic vinyl: menacing robotic noises are the perfect companions for a crushing beat and a bassline so deep that it could seriously damage bass cones. Rising stars such as Hijak, Random Trio and Moving Ninja are also present, and their efforts are just impressive as the bigger names’ tunes. There’s also a nice addition in the form of a second mixed CD, with some tracks from the first disc mixed with some dubplates and well known hits from the past months, like “28g” by Loefah and Skream, making Tectonic Plates an absolute must to have an idea of the current dubstep scene.
Tectonic Plates is out now on Tectonic. [Purchase
