Greg Sanders, AKA Distance, is a producer who has always been vocal about his love for metal music. He and Vex'd turned in a devastating mix for Radio 1 back in February of this year, which featured tracks from Khanate and Isis going head-to-head with dark garage drum patterns. Hearing these types of variant stlyes placed next to one another made perfect sense, as both Sanders and doom metal overlords Sunn O))) craft their sound out of seismic basslines and brown note frequencies.
Sanders, clearly, isn't making music that you'll hum and latch onto instantly, he's making music that siphons its way into your organs when it's boomed at you through immense speaker stacks in darkened rooms. And, as a result, a lot of this music's weight and impact is completely lost in headphones; it's melodically sparse, sitting on bleak phrase harmonics and stabs of intricately treated guitars with some thunder chunky snares hitting on every three count to regiment things and keep the groove moving.
"Koncrete" is the first moment when Sanders really turns his second album, Repercussions, into shrivel lip/scrunch nose territory. It's here that the perforated bass riff starts seething at the edges and driving the gritty waves of atmosphere deep into your belly. Similarly, the title track is a detuned stomper that echoes in on itself gloriously, while "Mirror Tell" is a lesson in letting touches of mottled guitar distortion colour your soundscape just enough to really make it bump real eerie-like.
There may be definite structural formulas that Sanders adheres to; the way he slopes off into his breakdowns, muting the drum section definitely works to change the pace and fool any overzealous raver's movement on the dance floor, but it can feel predictable over the course of an album. It shouldn't be considered uninspired though; it simply means Sanders is carving his productions with DJs in mind, providing others the chance to smash the room on a double drop with one of his tunes.
With My Demons, Sanders garnered the prestigious title of Dubstep Forum's 2007 Album of the Year. Repercussions is a much fuller exploration of the metal-influenced, spooked-out atmosphere that emanates from Sanders' snatched moments of guitar feedback and crunchy bass riffs. With such engrossing skeletal percussion backing these heavyweight plates, he's more than likely to be in the running to win the same accolade again this year.
Sanders, clearly, isn't making music that you'll hum and latch onto instantly, he's making music that siphons its way into your organs when it's boomed at you through immense speaker stacks in darkened rooms. And, as a result, a lot of this music's weight and impact is completely lost in headphones; it's melodically sparse, sitting on bleak phrase harmonics and stabs of intricately treated guitars with some thunder chunky snares hitting on every three count to regiment things and keep the groove moving.
"Koncrete" is the first moment when Sanders really turns his second album, Repercussions, into shrivel lip/scrunch nose territory. It's here that the perforated bass riff starts seething at the edges and driving the gritty waves of atmosphere deep into your belly. Similarly, the title track is a detuned stomper that echoes in on itself gloriously, while "Mirror Tell" is a lesson in letting touches of mottled guitar distortion colour your soundscape just enough to really make it bump real eerie-like.
There may be definite structural formulas that Sanders adheres to; the way he slopes off into his breakdowns, muting the drum section definitely works to change the pace and fool any overzealous raver's movement on the dance floor, but it can feel predictable over the course of an album. It shouldn't be considered uninspired though; it simply means Sanders is carving his productions with DJs in mind, providing others the chance to smash the room on a double drop with one of his tunes.
With My Demons, Sanders garnered the prestigious title of Dubstep Forum's 2007 Album of the Year. Repercussions is a much fuller exploration of the metal-influenced, spooked-out atmosphere that emanates from Sanders' snatched moments of guitar feedback and crunchy bass riffs. With such engrossing skeletal percussion backing these heavyweight plates, he's more than likely to be in the running to win the same accolade again this year.
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Published /
Tue / 18 Nov 2008 -
Words /
Oli Marlow -
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Tracklist /
CD 1
01. Magnesium
02. Out Of Mind
03. Free Me
04. Koncrete
05. Loosen My Grip
06. Repercussions
07. Mirror Tell
08. Sending Chills
09. Skeleton Grin
CD 2
01. V
02. Headstrung
03. Misfit
04. Present Day
05. Feel Me
06. Radical
07. No Sunshine
08. Victim Support
09. Battle Sequence
West + Wales
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