- The release of the Sun Showers EP is the most concrete evidence yet of a growing interest in new grime from Japan's Diskotopia label, formerly best known for releasing house- and techno-indebted productions by the likes of Mau'lin and (in his "Eski-house" days) Slackk. In the past year the label has released odds and ends from Visionist and Arctic, but the signing of Houston's Rabit is a particular coup. Rabit has earned recognition in recent months for his bold, highly abstract recastings of classic grime motifs. The Double Dragon EP and "Satellite," his contribution to Keysound's This Is How We Roll compilation, burrowed deep into the style's icy core, returning with disjointed shards of the familiar.
Sun Showers is a slightly brighter proposition. "Levels," at least, is something other than unremittingly bleak, its sprightly snare syncopations and shredded vocal samples recalling Helix's sparse beat tracks. Otherwise, hats and gloves should be kept within arm's reach. The title track's cut-glass synths wheel cautiously around wobbling globules of bass. It's an exploration, as with Visionist's recent output, of the point where grime dissolves into vapour. The metabolism of "40 Below," meanwhile, has been slowed to a crawl, its tentative bongo work, smashed-glass percussion and enormous sub line appearing on the verge of cryogenic stasis. Finally, "Black Bag"'s frigid square waves wail in beatless space. It's grim, yes, but strangely beautiful—a formula Rabit seems to have nailed.
Tracklist01. Sun Showers
02. Levels
03. 40 Below
04. Black Bag