Hot on the heels of his recent ‘Halloween’ release under his own name, this latest 12” EP on Blueberry Records ‘News Of The World’ sees Luke Vibert reactivating his junglist alter ego Amen Andrews for the first time in almost a decade. Those familiar with his preceding Amen Andrews outings on Rephlex will already have a good idea of what to expect here, and Vibert certainly doesn’t disappoint with these four new tracks. ‘Automatic Truth’ kicks things straight out into rattling junglist hardcore rhythms, sending the familiar “bang, nine, automatic” hiphop sample wandering out over hardnosed ‘Amen’ breaks, eerie sub-bass drops and icy gamecore synths, before the addition of softer melodic shades begin to trace a slight more Detroit-tinged hue over the backbeat chaos.
After the former track’s suitably over-the-top breakdown section consisting of gunshot samples, ‘Amen HQ’ shifts from a hiphop-centred intro section into a blur of accelerated junglist snares and ragga MC vocal samples as speaker-quaking bass pads slide into focus against shimmering jazzy synths and blaring air horns, before ‘News Of The World’ offers up what’s easily this EP’s most relentless jump-up roller as thick bass swells roll against against bright quavering rave arpeggios and 8-bit tones. It’s closing track ‘Amotherfucker’ though that offers up what’s easily this EP’s most typically out-there moment, as eerie chorale voices give way to fat, distorted dubstep bass tones that buzz back and forth like an angry cyborg against gratuitous sampled profanity, blocky analogue bounces and snatches of sped-up, Mickey Mouse-esque vocal loops. A welcome return from Amen Andrews that’s definitely been worth the wait.
