- Alan Johnson is a collaboration between Gareth Kirby and former Mindset artist Stickman. Why they chose to name the project after a former British home secretary is a mystery, although I'm hoping it turns out that Johnson spent his youth running a system at Jamaican soundclashes, because that's where this EP draws its influences from. It's refreshing to hear dubstep in 2013 that has more than a passing relationship with dub.
Both tracks are built on a sticky low-end, with snatches of patois bruised by bone-shaking percussion. "Fickle" has a touch of early Skream about it, as though someone took his "Acid People," smashed it with a hammer, and then glued the pieces back together. Gabba bass thuds through halfstep beats, the drums sounding more like scrunched-up paper than a snare, with the echoing cry of "bludclart" tipping a hat to dub's forebears. Where "Fickle"'s rhythms are fractured, "Goron Sound" follows a more straightforward path, although it also features murky subs and drums, with timbales that crack hollowly as the bass purrs like a contented lion. It wouldn't have sounded out of place on Plastic People's floor seven years ago, but feels like it's referential rather than a throwback.
Tracklist A Goron Sound
B Fickle