• Basket
  • Music Jobs
  • Login / Register
  • Login
  • Register
Resident Advisor
×
Search
Submit
Did you mean
×
  • Resident Advisor
  • Magazine
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Features
    • Videos
  • Listings
    • Events
    • Clubs
    • Festivals
    • Photos
  • Music
    • Artists
    • New Tracks
    • DJ Charts
    • Podcasts
  • Search
  • Reviews
  • /
  • Albums

Rustie - Glass Swords

    • Label /
      Warp Records
      WARP217
    • Released /
      October 2011
    • Style /
      Bass, Dubstep
    • Comments /
      38 / View
    • Rating /
      4.0/5
    • Previous
    • Next
    Rustie - Glass Swords Rustie - Glass Swords
    Rustie - Glass Swords Glass Swords seems set on out-gauching a league of contemporaries who are beginning to add completely unfashionable genre signifiers to their music. You don't get much more direct than "Hover Traps," whose slap bass (like it was taken right off of Seinfeld) is quickly rendered irrelevant in the face of the massive flashes of fuzzy white light, enough to invoke memories of Above & Beyond or ATB's heyday. Indeed, on several tracks Rustie prefers the tried-and-tested trance trick of snare rolls and epic build-ups ("After Light") that explode into tacky fireworks.

    But it doesn't end there. Influenced equally by progressive rock and video games, he loads his music with theatrical melodrama, the stuff of medieval adventures and space-age voyages. There are searing guitar solos constantly cutting through these beats, another layer of sensory-overload sugar, and at its most potent the mixture is an absolute knockout. Standout single "Ultra Thizz" mixes these prog-rock heroics with drum machine acrobatics and trance euphoria, a dizzying combination of high octane drama so convincing it can't help but ingratiate itself through sheer willpower.

    It might all be a little childlike were the music not so dauntingly complex: melodies rarely go the predictable path and they even more rarely repeat. The rhythms are removed from the quantized boom-bap he used to be associated with, effortlessly switching grooves like a live drummer controlled by Rustie's expert puppeteer hands. I'd be hard-pressed to put these tracks in any genre: though tracks like "Death Mountain" and "Cry Flames" have serrated and plunging dubstep basslines, the jagged, unpredictable movements are anything but typical. A track like "All Nite" flips the playful funk of Hudson Mohawke into a convulsing monster where the hot pink synth blasts sound like they're being squeezed through a straw at random.

    If an album of tireless prog-dance sounds fatiguing, Rustie's got your back there too. You can only handle so much sugar before teeth are dissolving in your mouth, so these tracks are kept to agreeable lengths, and a dependable dynamic of careful intros (before "City Star" falls off into hip-hop mayhem it's a real sci-fi tearjerker) means there are necessary plateaus and valleys to keep the high from wearing off (or wearing listeners out).

    I'll admit I wasn't the biggest fan of the surprising new direction on Rustie's Warp EP debut Sunburst, but he's completely reworked the formula here, tightening it, reinforcing it, and making it a whole lot more attractive in the process. Gone is the self-indulgent sense of excess and in its place is a well-oiled system of interlocking melodies catchy enough to lodge themselves into your brain even when there's three of them going at once. Glass Swords is a place where pleasure is the only constant: it doesn't matter that he's playing with self-consciously "cheesy" sounds or untouchable genres when the songs are this good. We've come a long way from "aquacrunk"—so here's your trance, now dance.
    • Published /
      Thu / 6 Oct 2011
    • Words /
      Andrew Ryce
    • Share
    • Tracklist /
      01. Glass Swords
      02. Flash Back
      03. Surph
      04. Hover Traps
      05. City Star
      06. Globes
      07. Ultra Thizz
      08. Death Mountain
      09. Cry Flames
      10. After Light
      11. Ice Tunnels
      12. All Nite
      13. Crystal Echo
    0/
  • Popular reviews

    • Post a comment

      Leon Vynehall - DJ-Kicks

    • Post a comment

      nd_baumecker - Panorama Bar 07

    • Post a comment

      Adam Beyer - Teach Me (Amelie Lens Remixes)

    • Post a comment

      Ossia - Devil's Dance

    • Post a comment

      Various - Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990

    • Post a comment

      DJ Sports - Akrasia

    • Post a comment

      Efdemin - New Atlantis

    • Post a comment

      King Midas Sound - Solitude

    0/
  • Comments loading

    0/ #157973
    • More on Warp Records

      Warp Records

      The cornerstone electronic consumers label.
      View the full label profile

    • Reviews

      • Post a comment

        Mira Calix - Utopia

      • Post a comment

        Autechre - AE_LIVE_ASHEVILLE_081015

      • 3 comments

        Oneohtrix Point Never - Love In The Time Of Lexapro

      • 24 comments

        Aphex Twin - Collapse EP

      • 29 comments

        Yves Tumor - Safe In The Hands Of Love

      • 81 comments

        Aphex Twin - T69 Collapse

      • 1 comments

        Oneohtrix Point Never - The Station

      • Post a comment

        Nightmares On Wax - Deep Shadows Remixes

      • 4 comments

        Lorenzo Senni - The Shape Of RemixXxes To Come

      • 27 comments

        Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of

      • 1 comments

        Mount Kimbie - Love What Survives (Remixes Part 1)

      • 53 comments

        Autechre - NTS Sessions 1-4

      • 7 comments

        Mark Pritchard - The Four Worlds

      • 2 comments

        Kwes - Songs For Midi

      • 1 comments

        DJ Nigga Fox - Crânio

      • 6 comments

        Nightmares On Wax - Shape The Future

      • 1 comments

        Lorenzo Senni - XAllegroX / The Shape Of Trance To Come

      • 33 comments

        Kelela - Take Me Apart

      • 20 comments

        Mount Kimbie - Love What Survives

      • 32 comments

        B12 - Electro-Soma

      • 10 comments

        Oneohtrix Point Never - Good Time (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

      • 13 comments

        AFX / Luke Vibert ‎- Orphans

      • 11 comments

        Clark - Death Peak

      • 55 comments

        The Other People Place - Lifestyles Of The Laptop Café

      • 11 comments

        Brian Eno - Reflection

      • 5 comments

        Hudson Mohawke - Ded Sec - Watch Dogs 2 (OST)

      • 45 comments

        Lorenzo Senni - Persona

      • 34 comments

        Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition

      • 3 comments

        patten - Ψ

      • 1 comments

        Gonjasufi - Callus

      • 1 comments

        Darkstar - Made To Measure

      • 26 comments

        Aphex Twin - Cheetah EP

      • 13 comments

        Plaid - The Digging Remedy

      • 64 comments

        Autechre - elseq 1-5

      • 30 comments

        Mark Pritchard ­- Under the Sun

      • 11 comments

        Brian Eno - The Ship

      • 9 comments

        Clark - The Last Panthers

      • 3 comments

        Lafawndah - Tan EP

      • 25 comments

        Kelela - Hallucinogen Remixes

      • 31 comments

        Rustie - EVENIFYOUDONTBELIEVE

      • 30 comments

        Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden Of Delete

      • 25 comments

        Kelela - Hallucinogen EP

      • 11 comments

        Darkstar - Foam Island

      • 18 comments

        Battles - La Di Da Di

      • 28 comments

        AFX - Orphaned Deejay Selek (2006-2008)

      • 10 comments

        Nozinja - Nozinja Lodge

      • 30 comments

        Hudson Mohawke - Lantern

      • 14 comments

        Various - CARGAA 1

      • 17 comments

        Squarepusher - Damogen Furies

      • 4 comments

        Clark - Flame Rave EP

      • 33 comments

        Future Brown - Future Brown

      • 31 comments

        Aphex Twin - Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 EP

      • 29 comments

        Clark - Clark

      • 39 comments

        Flying Lotus - You're Dead!

      • 10 comments

        Hudson Mohawke - Chimes

      • 251 comments

        Aphex Twin - Syro

      • 1 comments

        Nozinja - Tsekeleke

      • 50 comments

        Rustie - Green Language

      • 34 comments

        Plaid - Reachy Prints

      • 10 comments

        patten - ESTOILE NAIANT

      • 1 comments

        Bibio – The Green EP

      • 1 comments

        Darkstar – HD7 (Cult & Zomby Remix)

      • 3 comments

        patten - EOLIAN INSTATE

      • 11 comments

        Mount Kimbie - CSFLY Remixes

      • 38 comments

        Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven

      • 11 comments

        Autechre - L-event

      • 3 comments

        Mark Pritchard - Lock Off

      • 18 comments

        Nightmares On Wax - Feelin Good

      • Post a comment

        Jeremiah Jae - Bad Jokes

      • 3 comments

        Mark Pritchard - Ghosts

      • 131 comments

        Boards Of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

      • 38 comments

        Mount Kimbie - Cold Spring Fault Less Youth

      • 13 comments

        Bibio - Silver Wilkinson

      • 8 comments

        Brian Eno / Grizzly Bear – Nicolas Jaar remixes

      • 7 comments

        Jamie Lidell - Jamie Lidell

      • 59 comments

        Autechre - Exai

      • 18 comments

        Darkstar - News From Nowhere

      • 28 comments

        Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes

      • 13 comments

        TNGHT - TNGHT

      • 63 comments

        Clark - Iradelphic

      • 3 comments

        Battles - Dross Glop 1

      • 5 comments

        Leila - U&I

      • 16 comments

        Plaid - Scintilli

      • 6 comments

        Hudson Mohawke - Satin Panthers

      • 1 comments

        Bibio - T.O.Y.S.

      • 11 comments

        Battles - Gloss Drop

      • 15 comments

        Bibio - Mind Bokeh

      • 6 comments

        Rustie - Sunburst

      • 3 comments

        Seefeel - Faults

      • 5 comments

        Flying Lotus - Pattern + Grid World

      • 2 comments

        PVT - Church With No Magic

      • 61 comments

        Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

      • 3 comments

        Africa Hitech - Blen

      • 8 comments

        The Hundred In The Hands - Dressed in Dresden

      • 3 comments

        Eprom / Eskmo - Hendt / Lands and Bones

      • 36 comments

        Autechre - Oversteps

      • 16 comments

        Hudson Mohawke - Butter

      • 11 comments

        Prefuse 73 - Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian

      • 4 comments

        Tim Exile - Family Galaxy

      • 3 comments

        DJ Mujava - Township Funk Remixes

      • 8 comments

        Hudson Mohawke - Polyfolk Dance

      • 9 comments

        Harmonic 313 - Dirtbox EP

      • 7 comments

        Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

      • 40 comments

        Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

      • 24 comments

        Autechre - Quaristice

      • 15 comments

        Clark - Turning Dragon

      • 1 comments

        Battles - Tonto +

      • 35 comments

        Surgeon - This Is For You Shits

      • 7 comments

        Battles - Atlas

      • 12 comments

        Boards of Canada - Trans Canada Highway EP

      • Post a comment

        Warp presents !!! at Spektrum at The London Astoria

    0/
  • More on Rustie

    • Rustie
      Follow


      View the full artist profile

    News

    • Mon, 22 Aug 2016

      29 comments

      Geeneus, Katy B, Rustie play Shaun Bloodworth fundraiser in London

      Proceeds from the September 15th party will go to the respected photographer, who's currently in hospital awaiting a liver transplant.

    • Wed, 29 Jun 2016

      Post a comment

      Inkke debuts on LuckyMe with Secret Palace EP

      The Scottish producer and Rinse FM regular is gearing up to release a six-tracker on the label.

    • Mon, 04 Apr 2016

      Post a comment

      LuckyMe announces debut album from Parc en Ciel

      Path Integral will see release at the end of this month.

    • Mon, 08 Feb 2016

      10 comments

      Flying Lotus, Rustie appear on Rick Rubin-curated Star Wars tribute

      There's also going to be a new FlyLo album this year.

    • Thu, 28 Jan 2016

      17 comments

      Baauer reveals debut album, Aa

      The long-awaited record features Rustie, Novelist, Future, and M.I.A.

    • Wed, 27 Jan 2016

      Post a comment

      Love Saves The Day announces 2016 lineup

      Ben Klock, Hudson Mohawke, Hot Chip and Motor City Drum Ensemble will all play the Bristol festival in May.

    • Mon, 21 Dec 2015

      24 comments

      Rustie cancels shows 'due to addiction & mental health problems'

      The Glasgwegian took to Twitter over the weekend to announce the news, which will affect 'all gigs in the near future.'

    • Thu, 05 Nov 2015

      31 comments

      Rustie releases, streams new album

      EVENIFUDONTBELIEVE is out via Warp Records.

    Reviews

    • 17 comments

      Baauer - Aa

    • 31 comments

      Rustie - EVENIFYOUDONTBELIEVE

    • 50 comments

      Rustie - Green Language

    • 13 comments

      S-Type - Rosario

    • 2 comments

      Machinedrum - Fenris District

    • 12 comments

      Rustie - Triadzz / Slasherr

    • 38 comments

      Rustie - Glass Swords

    • 6 comments

      Rustie - Sunburst

    • 4 comments

      Rustie - Bad Science EP

    • 1 comments

      Modeselektor - Happy Birthday! Remixed #2

    • 4 comments

      Joker & Rustie - Play Doe

    • 1 comments

      Rustie - Zig-Zag

    • 2 comments

      Various Production - Versus

    0/
    • RA
    • Copyright © 2019 Resident Advisor Ltd.
    • All rights reserved
    • Privacy & Terms
    • Cookie Policy
    • Resident Advisor /
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Jobs
    • 24/7

    • RA Tickets /
    • My Tickets
    • Ticketing FAQ
    • Resale
    • Sell tickets on RA
    • Submit event

    • Apps /
    • RA Guide
    • RA Ticket Scanner
    • Elsewhere /
    • Watch on YouTube
    • Follow on Facebook
    • Listen on Apple Music
    • Stream on Spotify
  • RA is also available in Japanese. 日本版
    • RA on YouTube
    • RA on Facebook
    • RA on Twitter
    • RA on Instagram
    • RA on Soundcloud