Erb N Dub and Skope have teamed up again to bring us \’Altitude/Drummer\’.
Altitude arrives with a deep and humid environment, conjuring shades of nineties atmospheric jungle with a disconcerting element of darkness. Vinyl crackles vie with a sharp edge of digital distortion to maintain an incessant mood of tension. And the constant shifting and writhing of the rhythm takes the normal interplay of downbeat and upbeat to a new height of complexity. Even the apparently-metronomic snare, which is the closest thing to a still centre the tune has, modulates and reforms as the track progresses.
Drummer adds a totally different complexion. Weaving a nexus of dense jungle undergrowth in the intro sets the tone. Then, as the title and punctuating dialogue samples suggest, this builds into a tune that’s all about the percussion. Bass squelches and sweeps provide a bed for driving tribal kick drum bombardments, pitch-shifting snares and variations in the second half of the track that are straight out of the showing-off-at-drum-programming handbook.
Out now on Beatport.
