As Deformer, Rotterdam-based electronic producer Mike Redman has exerted a fairly steady presence amongst the European breakcore scene over the last decade, with releases on Redrumz and Illy Noiz, and this latest six track 12” EP on Dutch label Mindtrick certainly sees him flexing his junglist tendencies. In this case, the theme seems to be scary religious cults, with ‘Diabolical’ opening slowly with creepy samples of what sounds like fanatical rednecks gathering over a whirl of cold, layered synths and menacing sub-bass, only for things to suddenly crash down into a mass of hammering metallic ‘Amen’ breaks, evil rave synth stabs and machine bass growls, before ‘Crucify’ opts for a curiously Monty Python-esque sampled crucifiction speech, only suddenly ricochet off into a whirl of lithe, rattling junglist snares and razor-sharp synth whirs that almost comes across like Roni Size on a seriously bad trip at points.
By contrast, ‘The Follower’ kicks the pace down a few notches if not the overall sense of oppressive intensity, opting for harsh, industrial-edged dubstep in the vein of The Bug and Vex’d that places samples from what sounds like ‘Ring’ amongst urgently bleeping synths, spooky reversed vocals and slamming, piston-like snares. Over the flip, the impressive set of remixes also continue to add plenty of diversity and edge here, with Bong-Ra taking the trademark pedal to the metal (emphasis on ‘metal’) approach to his reworking of ‘Diabolical’, sending mangled, shearing breakbeats careening against fearsome surges of dark distorted synths, before Mindtrick label heads Atiq & EnK offer up a remix of ‘Crucify’ that shifts from a creepy crawling leftfield hiphop beats intro section, before breaking down into spectacular dark liquid junglist breakbeats that feel slightly off-centre and unsettling at their very core. Finally, it’s arguably 6Blocc’s tearing mutant dubstep reworking of ‘The Follower’ that offers up the biggest highlight here, placing samples of a couple of girls summoning the devil by playing a record backwards over churning walls of poisonous sub-bass and jackhammer snares. In this case, the hilariously over the top sleeve art perfectly suits the sonic contents on offer here.
Chris Downton
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