San Francisco-based electronic producer Ill Gates (real name Dylan Lane) has built up a substantial presence amongst the US dubstep and bass music scenes thanks to touring alongside the likes of Bassnectar and Datsik and appearances at Burning Man and WEMF, and this latest collaboration-packed album ‘The Ill Methodology’ follows three years on the heels on his 2008 album ‘Autopirate.’ In many senses, the 18 tracks collected together here see Lane pursuing a path that’s aesthetically very similar to the aforementioned Bassnectar, one that’s firmly based around bass-quaking breaks-driven party tracks incorporating a headspinning arsenal of complex digital editing trickery.
The extrovert, electro-breaks laced ‘Pick It Up’ gives good indication of the predominant vibe here as Bakaman’s MC flow intersects with Masia One’s teasing RNB-pop chorus hook over a spiky backdrop of buzzing sub-bass growls, crisp breakbeats and sheeny trailing synths, while the hard as nails ‘Eviction’ plays the serrated and nasty card, sending answering machine messages of a neighbour’s enraged father spinning and stuttering through an apocalyptic backdrop of vast bass drops and contorted broken rhythms. Elsewhere, the ragga-tinged ‘Crossing Over’ sees the influence of more recent UK dubstep developments coming to the forefront as a skipping backbone of off-beats, warm swaggering bass and dubbed-out vocals gets suddenly pushed down into a churning wash of bleeping, glassy electronics and flanging sub-bass distortion, before ‘Metanoia’ offers a brief sanctuary from the scything bass tones, taking things down into a languid piece of dubbed-out downbeat electronics that sees Clara Venice’s chanteuse vocals drifting ghostlike against clattering mechanical rhythms and subtle flecks of guitar and live bass. If you’re a fan of extrovert, flexing bass music along the lines of Pretty Lights and Bassnectar, you shouldn’t be disappointed with this album.
Chris Downton
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