BD1982 - Casings

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  • Japan's unpredictable Diskotopia has most recently turned its attention to mutant grime, and after Rabit's spacey experiments on Sun Showers, co-founder BD1982 steps in with a mini-album of an EP that is one of the label's most striking statements yet. Unpredictable as ever, Brian Durr's sound has always been a tangle of tangents, but grime comes to the fore on Casings, where, across an engrossing 34 minutes, it's mashed with odd sonics and dancehall influences. "Bakkwaa" and "Clear Walls," with their halting thrusts, are most indebted to classic grime, but Durr prefers to swing his drums in wide arcs rather than the harsh angles we're used to. He often constructs his songs counterintuitively—every element on the psychedelic "Blud," for example, feels like it's fighting against the current, as if Durr is engineering everything the wrong way around. Both "Casava" and "Blessed" are druggy and hypnotic, with hard drums that try to punch through the haze of digital grain. "Writuals," meanwhile, uses the neo-grime tropes of breaking glass and splattering snares and builds them into an antsy drum framework that's more South Africa than South London. The centerpieces of the EP are a shade more experimental. The title track, a mostly ambient take on sinogrime, sees Durr fumbling to find a captivating way to structure it all. "The Ground Opens," dizzy with Actress-style filters, layers exploding drums and dazed dancehall vocals to hallucinatory effect. It's an unexpected detour in the middle of the EP, wonderfully emblematic of Diskotopia's increasingly progressive outlook.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Cassava A2 Writuals B1 Casings B2 Clear Walls
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