Bleep

Nothing is the first ever solo album from Hyperdub boss Kode9 – his first two albums, Memories of the Future (2006) and Black Sun (2012), were both made with frequent collaborator The Spaceape before his death from cancer in 2014. Grime, dubstep, and footwork form the cornerstones of Nothing, with Kode9 channelling the energy of these musical obsessions into a collection of icy 150bpm tracks that recall his ‘Xingfu Lu’ and ‘Ok’ singles more than his previous albums. Rifling through a sample bank of horror movie soundtracks, J-Pop and more, Nothing comprises a melting pot of amalgamated sounds that fritters between the sickly sweet vocal chops on ‘Holo’, through classy piano stabs and mind-melting arpeggios on ‘Vacuum Packed’ and the airy footwork styling of ‘Respirator’. Despite its tear-out moments, there is a lingering sadness to Nothing, from the haunted melodies of ‘Notel’ to the posthumous appearance of The Spaceape on ‘Third Ear Transmission’ to the empty nine-minute silence that closes the record on ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’.