Bleep

Following last year’s widescreen masterpiece The Mainframe, Bristol-based UK bass don Joker returns to his own Kapsize imprint with The Phoenix. ‘No Face’ wastes no time setting the tone, with marauding horns and Bond villain strings adoring a ludicrously outsized trap beat. ‘Only You’ sounds like an RnG refix filtered through Glaswegian sugar rush maximalism, and places enough emphasis on its vocal sample to hit for a pop-sized home run. ‘Planet D’ draws from the wobbly machine carnage associated with big room dubstep but lays over this weird skeletal beat, complete with orchestral bridging passages. ‘21’ rounds off the package with a muscular slice of broken beat funk. Top stuff from Bristol’s very own Purple prince.