Bleep

Keysound boss Blackdown has been making plenty of moves across 2017. He follows two EPs of bass-heavy British club music with this sparse, brooding LP. Gone are the rolling Croydon house numbers that made up Rollage Volumes 2 and 3. Indeed, the latter’s ‘Halcyon Skies’ appears here in a different form, this time as a gently percolating bit of sound art that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Dean Blunt’s The Redeemer. Indeed, Blunt’s solo output and recent work in Babyfather is probably the most immediate reference point for an album that skirts cautiously around the edges of UK hip-hop, garage and weightless grime. The lack of rhythm tracks makes the occasional appearance of a voice pack plenty of punch. Case in point - Trim’s unnerving, shirty speak-rap at the end of ‘Who Does It (KSA)’.