One of the labels pushing quality releases this year has definitely been Dispatch Recordings. With releases from Gerra & Stone, DBR UK, Quadrant, Philth and Nymfo already this year, you could be forgiven for wondering if the head honchos at Dispatch will be putting their feet up for the rest of the year!
However, we’ve so far been missing a solo outing from long time Dispatch artist DLR; lucky for us that changed this week! DLR is a busy man, with DJ bookings coming out his ears, managing his music production label “Labsamples” and fitting in writing his follow up album to “Seeing Sounds”. So before his second album “Dreamland” drops, we have been graced with a release on Dispatch LTD which also contains a collaboration with heavyweights Total Science.
The first track, entitled “Thinking About Tomorrow” is a bouncy little number which has a catchy techno-like mid-bass riff. Starting with a clean and airy pad sound, you can hear midrange growl slowly creeping in leading you to the hard hitting – but flowing – drums. As the drums intertwine with the filtered midrange riff, carrying you effortlessly to the drop, you know when the bass hits it will hit hard! With it being a DLR production, every sound has its place in the audio puzzle. The bass is clean and weighty yet has that grit, the drums are fat and chunky yet compliment the bass, the stabs sit just right and don’t over-power, the pads sound clear and lush but don’t muddy up the bass and kick; everything just belongs! It goes to show you don’t need to fill up the audio spectrum with countless sounds to make a full sounding track.
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On the flip we have the collab with the mighty Total Science called “On The Edge”. It’s not the first time that these artists have a track on Dispatch. You may have heard their previous collaboration on last year’s DLR album, “Control the Sound”.
The whole track is heavily influenced by reggae and dub, with trademark delays and vocal samples throughout the tune.
“On the Edge” starts with a simple kick-snare-hat pattern with a delayed rim shot and reggae filtered voice drifting in and out of the minimal and quick intro. A dub like drum roll before the reggae groove bass pattern takes up the reins and drives the track along. I can imagine someone smoking a massive spliff belting out the bassline on their 4 string bass guitar at 1am with the crowd head nodding along in trance. DLR and Total Science have captured the reggae vibe perfectly for me; it’s a track that would fit in at anytime in your set as it has a very hypnotic groove that you just can’t help swaying too.
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Both of these tracks, as minimal as they sound, have that something about them. They don’t need 100s of sounds to keep you interested; they have one of the most important things you can have in a tune and that’s groove – these tracks ooze it!
They are as likely to have you shocking out in a club as nodding and swaying on the Tube with your headphones in the middle of rush hour.
You can buy Thinking About Tomorrow/On The Edge on digital and vinyl directly from Dispatch or Juno and digital only from iTunes and all good digital retailers.
