- Raime have always been an intriguing duo. As a leading act on Blackest Ever Black (they were behind the label's first release), they were at the forefront of a trend towards post-industrial, dark electronic music that's still going strong. They then translated the same aesthetic into a post-punk band called Moin, before folding some of that guitar sound back into Raime. Now, their Yally project appears to be a similar excursion. Burnt / Sudo, the inaugural release for Boomkat's new one-sided 12-inch series, brings Raime's aesthetic to the darkstep continuum, zeroing in on a garage- and dubstep-influenced sound. It's not a huge leap—their DJ mixes and sets have long had a jungly edge.
One interesting thing about both "Burnt" and "Sudo" is they have a nice looseness, though they verge on feeling off-kilter. The synthetic yelps in the former and the vocal samples and rolling bassline in the latter evoke the rave, even as they carry a weight that's part low-end pressure and part heavy mood. As with Moin, Yally retains much of Raime's sonic identity, but with a defter touch they could have done more with all of this flavor.
TracklistA1 Burnt
A2 Sudo