- Grime's debt to videogames can't be overstated. Even aside from the stuff that was made on a games console, much of the genre's worldview was delivered through a backlit screen. When London's Dark0 recently enthused about his favourite videogame soundtracks, he demonstrated that this idea applies equally to grime's younger generation (also see Strict Face's "Fountains" or Murlo's refix of TRC's "You & Me").
It's therefore no surprise that while Dark0's latest EP has plenty of gnarled bass pulses and itchy grooves, it's the melodies that stand out. On "Phobos" it's digi-panpipes played off against a gaunt squarewave bassline. "Chaos," meanwhile, pivots between a redemptive A section and a darker B section, its richly layered synths almost symphonic in scope. "Skelly"'s creamy technoid chords are perhaps the most unexpected presence, but the way they're massaged into a coherent, engaging narrative is par for the course. Only "Jinn" is a little too saccharine—or perhaps, soaked in reverb and sporting a frustratingly disjointed groove, it just doesn't deliver the sugar in the right way. Fortunately fellow Lost Codes signee Filter Dread is on hand with the antidote: an utterly brutal remix of "Phobos." It's as if he's stomped on the original and then tried to mend it with a dried-out Pritt Stick. The result lacks the subtlety of Dark0's originals, but it's a welcome jolt of adrenaline all the same.
Tracklist01. Chaos
02. Phobos
03. Skelly
04. Phobos (Filter Dread Remix)
05. Jinn