- Hitting out at the world with his first solo 12-inch release--after outings alongside production pal Brackles on Berkane Sol, Pollen and Planet Mu--Shortstuff, known to his gran as Richard Attley, has lined up two suitably bastardized slices of dubstep on the ever dependable Ramp Recordings. Heavily infected with dubstep's current flirtations with the new UK breed of percussion-laden funky house, Shortstuff manages to pull a little of its riff-reliant influence, but flips it with a whole bunch of his own synthetic technicolour style.
Crayoning a kind of fractured calypso soca roller, "A Rustling'" bristles from the off with tumbling stabs of melody that seem to totter on the edge of the drums. Seeping their memorable patterns through the cracks as the post-garage rhythm clip clops its way atop the swooning low end, it aptly holds its own throughout the reams of background drones and drum-heavy breakdowns. "Stuff" again draws upon the bump-heavy swung drum explorations of 2-step as Attley sweeps his grainy keyboard synthesis across the canvas of snatched vocal "partying crashing" samples. In the process, he ends up painting the sonic equivalent of a purple and green magic eye chart that slowly merges to form a 3D picture of a frollocking unicorn complete with high top Nikes and a dookie gold rope.
Tracklist A A Rustling
B Stuff