- Parris turns dubwise UK dance music inside out.
- Parris made a career of turning UK dance music inside out. His discography is an arsenal of bangers, but they rarely sound like you might think—featherweight where others would be lead-footed, soft when you might expect rigidity, and deeply rooted in dub sounds. He follows a lineage established by early James Blake and Airhead records where empty space can be the loudest sound. His latest EP lands on The Trilogy Tapes, and it follows the footsteps of his last release for the label back in 2017. It's dubby and it's light, taking UK dance music forms and making a skeletal, almost featherweight version of them.
If there's anything different about Polychrome Swim, it's the almost calypso-style swing, which registers as sleepy UK funky on the lead track "Harajuku Girls," an elegant float in the vein of early Peverelist - right down to the fluttering synth lead. Sounds ripple and submerge, and halfway through the song briefly becomes a dub version of itself, a dreamy detour mirrored in the close, gentle sound design of "Yúrei." Here, the thudding tom-toms feel like someone tapping on your shoulder, before the track melts into a keyboard riff that shimmers like an oil swirl. Flashes of breakbeat glint on the zero-gravity dub of "Aqua Surge," where the EP's monochrome aesthetic bursts into colour, without losing its steady, almost meditative energy of the record. Parris' tracks hit hard but always take their time, slowly wrapping around you until you're swaddled in sub-bass and pitter-patter drums.
TracklistA1 Harajuku Girls
B1 Yūrei
B2 Aqua Surge