- Soundman Chronicles has spanned the globe in its short life, highlighting new-schoolers like Houston grime artist Rabit and New Zealand's Epoch. But the binding agent is the label's home city, London, and the dance music tradition for which it's known. Brighton's Etch is in thrall to a very specific part of that tradition. His past releases have struck a compromise between dubstep, or recent house-tempo echoes of that style, and an aesthetic drawn from hardcore and jungle. But just as his Keysound colleague Sully recently threw caution to the wind and embraced jungle directly, so too has Etch, with Serpent & The Rainbow, learned to stop worrying and love the Amen.
Sully's Blue double-pack relived the glories of the mid-'90s, but its supple melodies kept one eye on the present. Etch, too, doesn't entirely surrender himself to nostalgia, his carefully poised halftime-doubletime grooves recalling contemporary drum & bass. "TSATR"'s re-pitched chords and processed diva wails may be boilerplate jungle, but the exquisite push and pull of the groove isn't. "Waterfalls" leans more towards slouching halftime, and the way its chords cascade endlessly downwards is captivating, even if the precision of the drumwork risks being lost in the deluge. "The Scientists Breakology," finally, is a little more nondescript, but its breakbeat rush is a good excuse for Etch to show off his skills. Since he last graced Soundman back in 2013, his technique and vision have crystallised considerably, a fact that's amply in evidence here.
Tracklist01. The Serpent And The Rainbow
02. Waterfalls
03. The Scientists (Breakology)