Bleep

London producer Dominic Angas aka Dom & Roland has been on the bleeding edge of drum and bass technology for the best part of 30 years, a veritable subgenre unto himself. It might seem that ‘techstep’ is a shade arbitrary as a term, but in Angas’ case, it’s entirely apt; he dwells in the shady back alleys of drum and bass, a neo-noir android detective navigating the dystopian underworld complex.

A prolific artist by nature, it may not have been too long since we last heard from Dom & Roland, having already dropped the tasty The Search For Meaning / Abbott & Costello 12" at the gates of 2021, but the Gasoline / Sundown release shows he’s all about both quantity and quality. Side A’s ‘Gasoline’ matches Angas’ recent fascination with scraping soft pads against his classic breakbeat measures, making for rhythms that are as comforting as they are vertigo-inducing — which only adds to their uncanny texture. Side B’s ‘Sundown’ follows the winning formula by corrupting its lilting synth melody with yet another hard-hitting, front-and-centre percussive line, paired with some grizzly bass currents.

In summary, it’s another disc of forward-facing drum and bass mettle; with Dom & Roland, we couldn’t have wished for more.