Kangding Ray used to be the folksy member of the Raster Noton camp, but with Pruitt Igoe he’s gone all Byetone on us and released one of the label’s more overtly bangin’ dance records. It’s hardly a grand leap into the unknown, Raster productions increasingly comfortable in the post-dubstep discotheque (a product of both their own move towards the dancefloor and the dancefloor’s acceptance of more varied sounds), but the tension and invention Ray brings to these tracks is uncommonly impressive.
“Pruitt Igoe (Rise)” is the heavier of the two, by a margin: kicks and rimshots drawing a lurching half-step rhythm, all cloaked in dank, sticky matter, like fly-strewn cobwebs. This develops into a gloomy buzz, not unlike the menacing fizz that hangs over labelmate Senking’s work, enveloping the piece like gauze. For his mix Alva Noto strips things back slightly, heightening the crispness of the rhythmic elements, but by track’s end it too is dripping with gloom and gloop.
The drums in “Pruitt Igoe (Fall)” appear sketchier, again lost in a blanket of fog, which grows increasingly cluttered and confused. Bleak synth pads roll in at the halfway mark, making the Ben Frost remix an obvious choice. He makes the kicks more pronounced and regular, but the steadily thickening background is the most fearful thing here, the all enveloping portent of Lynchian dread. Anyone interested in dubstep’s darker fringes ought to pounce on this.
Joshua Meggitt
