UK-based live breakbeat duo Diverted (aka Lee Richardson and Stephen Baxter) have managed to build a healthy profile amongst London’s breaks scene, thanks to their monthly live residency at London’s Air, as well as appearances at this year’s Breakspoll Awards, and they’ve managed to attract the patronage of Laurent Garnier and Radioactive Man, who asked them to remix a track off his recent ‘Gnash’ EP. While the duo have been active since 2004 however, releasing a steady stream of 12″s on labels including Sokolov Sounds and Rennie Pilgrem’s Thursday Club Recordings, it’s only just now that they’ve finally gotten around to releasing this self-titled debut album on Ali B’s Air Recordings label. In many senses, the eleven tracks collected here prove to represent something of a game of two halves.
While more the more or less straight nu-skool breaks oriented tracks here such as the Plump DJs-esque ‘Frederick’ and ‘Big Baby Fear’ don’t really contribute much in the way of anything new to a genre that’s pretty much been done to death at this point, it’s the moments where Diverted stray further away from the constraints of the breaks arena that really impress here. ‘Visions’ sees the duo joining forces with ex-pat Aussie MC Nine Lives The Cat for a juddering, paranoiac slice of fearsome dubstep-loaded hiphop that’s easily one of the biggest highlights here, while the delicate, jazz-tinged ‘Summer Hiding’ sits closer to being the sort of shuffling, downbeat offering you might expect from the likes of The Herbaliser, smoky sax solos and female soul vocals included. Hopefully, future releases from Diverted will see them venturing further into exploratory territory, as it’s the stylistically more adventurous moments on this debut that prove to arouse the interest factor the most.
