Bleep

REQ who released on Warp in the early 2000s teams up with Smudge for the former’s first-time-in-a-long-time release. Smudge’s Coffee sees the duo up the downtempo across two original beats and two remixes, each stuffed with as many electrified ideas the duo can muster. Trip hop rhythms abound on the title track, a beguiling and playful affair with vocal snippets demanding caffeine and wily synth wobbles, remixed into a magnetising dub later on the disc. Meanwhile, ‘Change Le Beat’ flips the script with a stop-start beat, later flipped even further with a blustery breakbeat on the ETCH Remix while The Fear Ratio take the tune deeper into the murky underworld pushing the menacing bass to it's extreme, leaving the vocal yelps for help to appear yet more enfeebled. A very welcome return.