- It's tempting to compare Batu with another rising UK producer, Alex Coulton. Like Coulton, he's not based in Bristol (though he studies nearby, in Bath), but seems to have found like-minds in the city. And, having debuted on Pinch's new techno-leaning imprint, Cold, he now appears on Livity Sound sub-label Dnuos Ytivil, an honour he shares with Coulton. The label is an outlet for productions by outsiders that chime with Livity's dread-techno aesthetic. Batu's dub-informed, percussive sound is a neat fit.
Batu seems to have homed in on his points of commonality with the label for this release. "Spooked"'s crunched-up kicks and juddering sub-bass nod to Kowton, while its filtered sheets of hi-hat call to mind Pev & Kowton's "Raw Code." And where Batu's Cold release had an unsettled, jumpy quality, there's a muscular sensuality to the groove here that recalls Livity's strongest work. But in contrast to the stark precision often exhibited by his labelmates, Batu likes to whip up his atmospherics into a dubwise fog. "Clarity (Dismantled)" explores similar terrain. Its zombiefied, stop-start shuffle isn't quite propulsive, but you can imagine it wrestling a dance floor into motion all the same—added to which the divebombing bassline is a treat. Judging by the leap in quality between Batu's debut and this, we can expect fine things from him in the future.
TracklistA Spooked
B Clarity (Dismantled)