- Now that we can hear Spatial's Emergence series in its entirety, it doesn't seem to chart an emerging style so much as a kind of decay. From the punchy, ruffneck hybrids of Emergence #1, each instalment has become more sprawling, its rhythmic grids stretching almost to breaking point. The last of the trilogy was "written in the Canary Islands with a batch of new gear," and it sounds like the London producer was still getting to grips with it all. The drums lack weight and some of the synth elements are a bit thin. But Spatial's music remains a fascinating abstraction of UK dance styles. You won't find anything else quite like it.
Both tracks follow similar contours, starting with a pulse-less scree of drums. This gathers into a groove that would resemble UK garage if you plugged a few of its gaping holes. After a while, chords enter and shoulder their way into the foreground for the breakdown, before the duck-and-dive drums return to play us out. "Rainbow Table" is the stronger of the two, thanks to a few touches—reggae-style chords that ping across the stereo field, odd reverb detonations triggered by the percussion. "Black Sand" doesn't work so well. Its quivering chords sap the momentum rather than build it, and that fractured groove threatens to fall apart altogether.
TracklistA Rainbow Table
B Black Sand