Zomby - The Lie

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  • For a producer who claims such a casual work ethic for himself, Zomby's been astonishingly prolific in the past year, dropping three discs worth of material for Hyperdub, two singles for Ramp (this being the second), a single for Brainmath,and an ecstatic LP for Werk that simultaneously sounds like a nostalgic mixtape and a personal statement of purpose. And that's not even getting into the buzz surrounding unreleased material. Along the way, he's cut an ever-widening path in his chosen idiom. If every Zomby track can be genealogically traced back to a fairly specific set of musical antecedents (jungle, hardcore, dubstep, rave, hip-hop, etc., etc.), the finished results, cultivated under bedroom grow-lights, have struck more than a few as some seriously next level shit. As twisted and "wonky" as his music gets, though, a certain pop sensibility (if an unconventional one) structures the properly abrasive tendencies in Zomby's reanimations. Even Zomby's most pulverizing head trips are still, fundamentally, dance tracks. Take, for example, this late entry, which is as floor-filling as it is foreboding. "The Lie" is built around an unbeatable hook sampled from the most anthemic moment of Ricky L's "Born Again," and significant credit is due to that track for "The Lie"'s irresistible energy. Zomby embellishes the original by speeding it up, blurring it with delay and casting it in murky cassette-recorded-radio shadows, and then lays into it with the kick. The sampled Sizzla vocal refrain (likewise showcased on the Ricky L track), "I was born in a system/ That doesn't give a fuck about you or me...," is pure boast in Zomby's claws, seasoned with snippeted grunts and snickers. Amply supplemented by the kind of dynamic, ferocious percussion that defies the body's attempts to anticipate the rhythm, "The Lie" is hard not to get excited about. "Dripping Like Water" is less extroverted by far, but a strong bit of raved-up dubstep nevertheless. The requisite remix, here courtesy of LV, steers things toward dancehall territory, and pulls the track deeper into the low-end. To be sure, this mix is designed for a different equalizer preset altogether (for those soiling their hands with presets). Another exciting record from Zomby, and yet another point plotted on the chart of his meteoric rise. Easily as infectious as "Spliff Dub," "Strange Fruit," or "Mu5h," this one's unlikely to stray far from the stereo—at least until his next record.
  • Tracklist
      A The Lie B1 Dripping Like Water B2 The Lie (LV Remix)
RA