Toasty - Metal EP

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  • You may not hear the name Toasty these days, unless you happen to catch an old dubstep fan in a wistful moment. The producer went quiet in 2008—during his prior mid-'00s golden run, he injected a broken beat sensibility into the nascent dubstep sound to produce something unique. As the style's anything-goes attitude gave way to a handful of defined sub-genres, records like 2004's "The Knowledge" hinted at lost possibilities. On this unexpected return, for the London label Circadian Rhythms, it's as if no time has passed at all. Toasty's beats remain broken and heavy-footed, while his basslines are woofer-rattling and his arrangements are thick with synthetic atmosphere. The turbulent romantic mood recalls another former dubstep innovator, Kuedo. But Toasty's sound hasn't dated brilliantly, and on occasion the Metal EP sounds a bum note. "Bump," in particular, overdoes it. The lead line is pungent and the beat is clumsy, but the other tracks stand up better. "Metal"'s drums are rusted, as if from a decade of neglect, and its forlorn synths and rave chords swirl in an ocean of reverb. After a couple of minutes it crests into a bittersweet breakdown of near-Burial proportions. "Rebar," meanwhile, swaps the darkness for light. There's a grand euphoria to its cloudburst synths, which threaten to outshine the nifty breakbeat underneath.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Metal B1 Rebar B2 Bump
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