- Geoffrey Harrington isn't alone in picking through British dance music's history for inspiration, but he always seems to find the morsels that others didn't spot or rejected as uninteresting. His records as G3 often reboot late '00s post-dubstep, a sound whose bouncing rhythms, cute pitch-bent synths and hyper-crisp sonics don't yet seem ripe for revival. A 2014 single as Osamu Kimoto, meanwhile, fell between the cracks of the resurgent grime scene; its crisp, playful sound palette didn't align with any of the new school. But while Harrington's ear for the uncool might have damaged his career, it hasn't hurt his music. As last year's Garden Reach album demonstrated, he's built his innocuous reference points into a rich and convincing musical world. This second 12-inch as Osamu Kimoto might be his best record to date.
As usual, Harrington's influences aren't concealed. "Ryujin" was "inspired by a '10 years of Dubstep' set Loefah played last year," and it processes that influence directly. The execution is brilliant: dubstep's double-time shuffle is favoured over the halftime head-nod, as Harrington weaves dense lattices of claps and congas, hi-end details and dive-bombing bass. Melody is kept to a minimum, though plasticky pads offer development in the track's second half.
"Telegraph Hill" is equally restrained. Its main hook isn't a tune so much as a series of smacking-lip sounds, sprayed in semi-melodic shapes over a beat made out of pots, pans and finger-clicks. These are trademark G3 sounds, and they make the music sound disarmingly cute. Listen harder, though, and it's a banger: an unplaceable 119-BPM rhythm track reminiscent of Swamp 81 when the label still had everything to play for. In other words, another overlooked moment in UK club music's recent history.
TracklistA Telegraph Hill
B Ryujin