This third unmixed volume in BBC Radio 1 DJ Mary Anne Hobbs’ self-described ‘future sounds’ compilation series certainly sees her continuing to maintain a finger on the ever-mutating post-dance scene’s pulse, with a brace of current hot names like Hudson Mohawke, Starkey and Rustie making an appearance alongside a brace of lesser known newcomers. Unlike 2006’s ‘Warrior Dubz’ and its 2008 follow-up ‘Evangeline’, which saw Hobbs focusing primarily on dubstep and grime, ‘Wild Angels’ places its emphasis far more upon the mutant offspring borne of both aforementioned genres, resulting in some extremely divergent sonic directions over the eighteen tracks included here. If Mark Pritchard’s ‘?’ conjures ambient future-soul atmosphere with its droning backdrop of bass and harmonics providing an eerie counterpoint to slow, Herbie Hancock meets John Carpenter keys, it’s met head-on stylistically by Hudson Mohawke’s sudden shift up into clattering, asymmetical hiphop rhythms and bleeping gamecore electronics on the curiously wistful ‘Spotted’, and Untold’s descent into doomy, slow-motion Afrocentric rhythms and buzzing powerline bursts on ‘Discipline’, one of the more distinctly dubstep-centred offerings here.
Elsewhere, Tranqill’s ‘Payroll’ almost suggests one of El-P’s sonic backings for Cannibal Ox gone dubstep, as crisp, clacking rhythms provide a sturdy backbone for shimmering analogue synth arpeggios and ghostlike vocal samples, while Darkstar’s impressive reworking of Radiohead’s ‘Videotape’ manage to draw even more of a sense of brittle fear out of the original track, as echoing vocal samples and delicately buzzing electronics orbit around Thom Yorke’s harmonically processed vocals. It’s arguably Sunken Foal’s ‘Of Low Count And Light Pocket’s that offers up the most unexpected surprise here though, eschewing electronics in favour of a languid wander through chiming acoustic guitar arrangements, vocal harmonies and glistening vibraphone tones that edges towards Grizzly Bear, before Legion Of Two offer up this collection’s most devastating revelation with the searing ‘And Now We Wait’, which pits a muscular live drummer against distorted walls of industrial strength synths, to spectacular effect. Extremely impressive, and well worth hunting down.
Chris Downton
