I’ve never been hugely enamoured with Mistabishi‘s drum & bass output; most of it fell a bit too close to the jump-up bandwagon for my taste, so when his first release of 2013 arrived in the inbox I was fully expecting to bin it and swiftly move onto other things. How wrong I was!

It seems the Hackney-based producer has moved off and onto more interesting things, and his latest output merges soca, dancehall, UK funky and good old fashioned drum & bass to excellent effect. The rhythms bring to mind the recent explorations of Dawn Day Night, though the tone of the compositions is much different (and distinctly less juke/ghetto-tech influenced).

The tracks ultimately sound like a fusion of dirty half-step drum & bass and UK funky or soca, drawing the basslines from the former and the drum lines from the latter. Ultimately the music is full of the darkness and energy that made jungle and early drum & bass so dynamic and exciting, mixed with a diverse array of other influences. The style is doubtless to prove almost as “marmite” as the explosion of footwork…so check it out for yourself. Previews and pre-order up at Surus or iTunes.