Marcus Intalex - Debbit / Four Three Three

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  • After a quietly mesmerising, soul-drenched half step workout with Revolve:r stable-mate Martyn back in August 2008, it was only a matter of time before Marcus Intalex—known for a distinctly synth-heavy, Detroit-inflected take on rolling drum & bass—pitched in with a full, unaccompanied dubstep 12-inch. Happily, his idiosyncratic stylings—if a tad rough around the edges—translate well at this tempo, marking out an exciting juncture in his already illustrious career. "Debbit" kicks off with sustained pads and springy hats, gradually building as electric chord bursts gather in anticipation of what—arriving nearly two minutes in—is a strangely anti-climactic drop. From then on we're treated to a rhythmically stodgy but emotionally affecting half step elegy, lacking in any real swing or bite, but successfully running on mood alone. Midway through, a mournful, synthesised piano lead—the likes of which wouldn't sound out of place on a post-Closer Joy Division album, were it to exist—emerges to lend what's already a pointedly melancholy affair a powerfully funereal hue. Whilst not as tightly strung or sub-bass heavy as, say, your average Breakage ditto (to allude to another high-profile convert to the 140 BPM cause), it's really quite unlike any other "dubstep" track around right now. B-side "Four Three Three" employs a significantly brighter set of materials, pitching snappy kicks and punchy snares—all given a fair dose of the echo chamber treatment—against a fat, acid-drenched battery of synths and plodding, PiL-esque bass tones (to keep with the post-punk theme). As with the A-side, what it lacks in low-end pressure it makes up for in harmonic depth and, in this instance, sheer sonic exuberance. Which, in an over-saturated and increasingly homogenous milieu of flawlessly produced genre-simulacra, makes it a rare and wholly welcome case of personality over perfection.
  • Tracklist
      A Debbit B Four Three Three
RA