Al Tourettes - When I Rest I Rust

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  • If a recent remix for Ostgut Ton, freshly pressed Aus Music wares and a spate of international bookings are anything to go by, Bristol-based Al Tourettes's star is very much on the rise. And while his signature sound (if you can even call it that) isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea—jittery, bass-heavy electro-step is never going to have the mass appeal of, say, deep house—it's both effective on the floor (his live sets are electric) and refreshingly idiosyncratic. Just listen to the two tracks here, arriving via Bristol's promising If Symptoms Persist imprint. Both fit loosely into the "dubstep" category, but only by default: Their swung breaks and heaving bass, although similar in tempo, have little to nothing in common with the kind of inane slug-step that makes up the genre's mainstream. Rather, they trade on melodic nuance and rhythmic pliability, hopping, skipping and bobbling along without the slightest recourse to kitchen sink barbarism. A-side "When I Rest I Rust" is a case in point, picking up where 2009's glitchy, squirming "Dodgem" left off, but with added low-end punch and tongue-in-cheek robot vocals. Built around a series of crafty drops (one well over a minute long), it's dance floor gold for DJs looking to build mid-set tension, and comparably skullduggerous in its genre-evading swagger. B-side "The Next Meal" is a little more straight up, employing sledgehammer kicks and thick, chunky wafts of bass in a lumbering 2-step forward march. But rather than relying on low-end heft alone (something a lot of UK bass music is guilty of right now), Tourettes chips in with haunting dub chords and a darkly funked up lead melody akin to something techno pin-ups Mathew Jonson or Audion might have come up with back when minimal was alluring. It's about as sexy a piece of "dubstep" (or whatever you wish to call it) you could wish for.
  • Tracklist
      A When I Rest I Rust AA The Next Meal
RA