The release of Alix Perez’s second album for Shogun last year came as a disappointment to me – it felt like he’d been lured into the mainstream by the appeal of fame and fortune, with many of the tracks sounding completely unlike the style he’d been carving for himself in the D&B scene. News of an EP for Exit buoyed my hopes that he still had interesting tunes in him, and the results more than confirm that suspicion.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny8ACqYlZh8]
The influence of other electronica pervades the tracks on the EP, with trap, footwork and LA bass all playing into the sound, but thankfully the tracks make the influences their own rather than just copycatting new styles. U kicks things off with a breakneck take on the trap/footwork drum pattern and a smattering of cut up vocals, while Stray collab Sludge drops the tempo in favour of a gigantic, stalking, EPROM-style bassline; serious head-nod business.
The footwork influence comes full circle on Make It Worth as the original pioneers of the style Rashad & Spinn get in for a collab. The heavy sub and frantic syncopations oft associated with the genre are present, but with a level of polish which only D&B producers seem able to achieve. The vocal hook ices the cake nicely; no doubt this will be huge both in and out of the 170 scene. Last up the appropriately named Gully Halves strips things back for another minimalistic sub-fuelled slice of electronica that simply oozes with the swagger of the LA bass scene.
Watch out for this one dropping on vinyl and digital from April 7th – preorders are available from Surus now.
