Sometimes, we get sick of the blue acrylic carpet and the LED scroller.
WITS THEATRE 10.04
WITS THEATRE 12:36
WITS THEATRE 13:50
WITS THEATRE 14:1- "Dan, we have to leave."
We leave the murky depths and sweat through harsh sunlight, Dan's mirrored and my scratched lenses hiding our pupils. We take the long way around, under the bridge and along the pavements, until the basketball courts rise: chainlinked and shady before us. Around the corner that always, always smells like poes and through the awkwardly small gate - excuse me, your eyes are bloodred; excuse me, your lips are stained with resin. Through the dust and ominous haze we stumble, clearly Art Students, clearly young, clearly obvious, to the man with the highest turban and the quickest tongue - shooting out "more fire"s and "jah peace"s and "herbal healing aiiight"s. Wrapped in fruity papers - green mint, brown chocolate, little printed blueberries and the ever vile yellow banana that I always, always make him put back in his pocket. Ok, Part One is complete, we are on our way out of this place.
Part Two - call the man with the four/four high hat tshtsh-ing in his soul and the nice clean shoes taptap-ing on your face. Under and down and around again, through the half-squat AliceInWonderland door, until you're standing under the florescent light and the ventilation duct breathes sickly beside you. The trachea of the beast: squarely silver and eyelessly watching. Toke by toke, reality reclines. They're talking about walls that eat paint. Eat it. You're starting to worry, streching cos it feels niiiiice, pointing your toes and counting the beats - impulse:twothreefour:onetwothreefour-onetwo.threefour spin:fall:spin:push...
The tabacco mixed in has made your head rush up and out and your stomach curl around itself. "Leeney, your bag...". Always, always, "your bag...". Turn out the light and run before the trachea pops out an eye and Sees. Out of Wonderland, around, up, over... the trees are extremely evergreen out here.
Mr FourFour goes back to work, Dan leaves, I put my bag on a bench and unwrap my headphones from their kittensleep.
The whole point is, after dismissing WITS THEATRE HH:MM, I chose Ital Tek.
Another boywonder from Brighton, the 22yearold DJ/producer signed to Planet Mu Records (home of Boxcutter, Neil Landstrum, Frog Pocket, Benga and Venetian Snares...) in 2007 after his productions posted on Myspace (remember that?) caught the right kind of attention. His debut full length, Cyclical, got people saying things like "atmospheric dubstep soundscapes" and his new EP, Massive Error (released earlier this month), is going to get them saying a whole lot more.
Robots from the future came back in time. The war between robots and humans reached breaking point; there was no way for us both to survive. It wasnt us or them, it was all or nothing. Now, I'm not saying its right, what they did - those robots - but I'm not saying its all that wrong either. They came back. The time travelling machines we thought we'd destroyed... the Convention broken...hundreds of years back in time, 2009: just before techno music gave us more knowledge than we could handle. They sunk us - they submerged us. We're underwater. The robots sunk us under gallons of clear water, ensuring our subservience, censuring our destructions. Sure this isn't politics, I dont know if it was right or wrong, I dont know if they'll be punished or rewarded.
But i do know this: Ital Tek knows. Massive Error points out that trees sway very heavily these days. Have you seen how people are more and more and more like fish? Have you noticed how its easier to walk more slowly, as long as you dont try to stop? It means we're underwater. It means the robots put us here. It means, i know its dubstep but its also tech-y and glitchy and almost but not quite broken. Its terrifying.
The beat clicks and crunches, walking casually over dried up locusts who may, at any point, in fact be alive and judder upward to suffocate you and everyone you love. Luckily, the bass and the melody wont let that happen - you're underwater, and so are the locusts. They dont start and they dont end, they roll and they gain and they give. This is the kind of dubstep that reminds me why I, womanly, really like dubstep. Its not the boyish agression and overflowing testosterone of Rusko et al, and its not the flakey ragga of Tes La Rock either. Its male like God is male; its actually your father. It knew about what the robots had done before you even knew they were real. And even though its strong, its gentle. Like waves - yes, like sine waves but also like waves translate this deep under water.
The title track, "Massive Error", is really all about the robots. The bass and beat are serrated but not sharp, more unified here than the locusts and currents that exemplify more of Ital Tek's arrangements. As the unity expands and fattens, psychedelic, dubby melodies skirt surfaces: More and more action-adventure, swords and lasers, until the gameplaying climaxes is a blipping overbubble... before the bass slides back in, deep and endless and supported again by the cleanly popping drum beat.
The more dance-friendly "Octa" sits on a steady this...thi-thisthis drumandbassy beat, giving more scope to those patently atmostpheric, infintely O-ed swoooooops and woooooops and flooooops. This is typical Ital Tek, at once obvious and sly.
By now I'm walking a little bit too fast down the cement hill, WITS THEATRE 14:58 awaiting my return. A girl stops to tell me i look "whimsical". I pass over my headphones, playing the EPs final offering, "Ghost Clouds" - cold and wet and mostly hopeless. I'm not sure if she understood about the robots, but she walked away more slowly than before.
Ital Tek - Massive Error (MediaFire)
Ital Tek - Ghost Clouds (MediaFire)
Bonus:
Ital Tek - Bun-E Mix (right click save as)
Tracklisting:
Flying Lotus - Orbit 405
Neil Landstrumm & Si Begg - A £20 to get home
Zomby - The Lie
Vex'd - Pop Pop VIP
Various Production - Chief
Scuba - Ruptured (Surgeon Remix)
TRG - Put you down
Squarepusher - Abacus 2
Zomby - Euphoria
Iannis Xanikis - Orient Occident
Harmonic 313 - Dirtbox
Remarc - Thunderclap
Ital Tek - Octa
Posts
