- As a DJ, London's Barely Legal darts between different eras of UK music, blending grime, garage, dubstep and drum & bass. The first release on her new Pretty Weird Records reflects that style. Near, a newcomer, makes blistering hybrids that hover at around 125 BPM, but can sound like dubstep, drum & bass or something in between. Static's three originals are at slightly different tempos, but they're made up of similar parts: foreboding synths, buzzing basslines and nimble drums. The title track is the standout, with a barbed wire bassline and drums that expand and contract like sharp breaths, recalling the recent work of Fracture and Sam Binga. "Impel" and "Friction" are hard to tell apart. There are differences in the drums, but both tunes have the same cascading melodies and vaguely menacing vocal samples.
The remixes offer different colours. TSVI moulds "Static" into rude UK funky in the vein of his excellent Sacred Drums EP, while Sam Binga pulls "Impel" up to 160 BPM for a drum beatdown that, even by his standards, feels heavy. The reworks flesh out the EP with the diverse spirit that drives Barely Legal's sets, rounding off a promising first release from a label that bridges the gap between a number of UK scenes.
Tracklist01. Static
02. Impel
03. Friction
04. Static (Sam Binga Remix)
05. Impel (TSVI Remix)