Cyclic Defrost

Airflex Labs is a new Lyon, France-based label designed with the intent of counteracting the generic ‘wobblestep’ pattern a fair amount of dubstep finds itself becoming locked into, and this debut 12” release comes from veteran French electronic / dub producer LED Piperz, with two previously unreleased tracks included alongside a typically ‘out of the square’ reworking by Boxcutter. While LED Piperz has previously established a reputation for exploring the smokier sides of dub on labels including Supadope and Jarring FX, ‘Aerial’ certainly provides an extremely convincing and impressive argument for his entry into the dubstep arena. Indeed, the entire manages to roll with a tightly flexed sense of digi-funk elasticity that’s been missing from many of the flatlined, sine-bass heavy tracks that have littered the dubstep genre of late, with ‘Otherside’ taking things down into even darker territory amidst clattering tabla percussion and frenetic, evil-sounding synth arpeggiation. Finally, as is to be expected these days, Boxcutter’s remix of ‘Otherside Dub’ veers away from the established dubstep template, taking things down into deep, dubby Arkestra-esque vibes as laser-gun synth squiggles zap back and forth amidst slow, rolling rhythms and delayed-out, ghostly reggae vocals. Great stuff – if all of Airflex’s stuff is up to the standard of this debut 12” release, dubstep fans will be in for a treat.

Chris Downton

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