Untold - Doff / Phive

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  • There have been several Untolds since Jack Dunning first kicked down the door of UK bass music, to the extent that it's becoming difficult to keep up. There was glossy, implacable big-room techno Untold (2012's Change In A Dynamic Environment series), followed by the expressionistic, concept-driven Untold of his debut album, Black Light Spiral and subsequent mixtape Echo In The Valley. Now, with the advent of his new sub-label, Hemlock Black, we have another one to grapple with. The sound of this new single falls somewhere between those past incarnations. "Doff"'s sinus-scraping bass is straight out of "Motion The Dance," while its piledriving kicks recall the rhythmic daze of Dunning's late '00s output. The track's raw, pressure-cooked intensity, meanwhile, is of a piece with the rougher Black Light Spiral. But it's also, to a degree, completely new. The appearance of an electric guitar, sounding repeated tones in the middle distance, certainly couldn't have been predicted. The result is an intriguing collision of ideas rather than a single truly compelling one, but it's so good that that almost doesn't matter. Guitars feature more strongly on the deeply strange "Phive," picking out ungainly riffs and the odd harmonic over a subdued beat. It's hard to tell where we're headed until, at the midpoint, the bottom falls out and it all goes a bit sci-fi. Untold has bamboozled us once again, and for that we should be thankful.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Doff B1 Phive
RA