Veröffentlicht
Apr 13, 2022
- Melodic, innovative footwork inspired by video game battles as much as dance battles.
- Following DJ Hank's City Stars, Heavee's Audio Assault makes the case that 2022 could be a new year of groundbreaking footwork from Hyperdub. Heavee has a lot more experience in the footwork scene—older tracks like "8 Bit Shit" are damn near modern classics—and where DJ Hank reaches for Sepalcurean vocal samples, Heavee is more inspired by the sound and feel of video games. Literally: Audio Assault, his first-ever solo record for Kode9's label, is meant to mimic the progression of a video game, from the calm beginnings to the battle and denouement. Using a mixture of chintzy synths, dextrous drum programming and tantalizing rhythmic switch-ups, Audio Assault is one of the most graceful and moreish Hyperdub records in recent memory.
From the moment the piano hits on the opener "Eyes On The Horizon," you know you're in in for a smooth—or at least pleasantly bumpy—ride. The swirling synths on the opener chase a rambunctious rhythm that back and forth between pseudo-trap halftime with ease. It's a nimble approach mirrored on the old-school sounding "Watch Yo Step (Feeling Myself)," where jabbing vocal samples are weighed down by a trembling, melancholy chord progression.
Heavee uses footwork as an underlying framework for expressions of melody and mood. Despite its title, "Time To Rave" is all anxious trepidation, the acidic synths and nervy bassline matching the kick drums in a Jersey club-style pattern, like listening to someone gather their thoughts—and arsenal—before a big fight. "Floor Burn" is an impressionistic blur that combines the floating feel of the earliest footwork with the the dubwise dread of other producers like Jana Rush, while "Machines Can Talk" is one of the most inventive footwork tracks I've heard in recent memory, repurposing the genre's rhythms into a stealthy creep that makes me think of a dungeon crawl in some old JRPG.
These references are my own. It's a testament to Heavee that you could probably glean all sorts of cultural touchpoints or stylistic ideas from these tracks. Though he's a dyed-in-the-wool Chicago footwork artist, he takes the music beyond its roots into a world of gilded instrumentation, cross-country rhythmic interplay and sounds that evoke fantastical lands and swordfights, a level of creativity that puts him on the level of other trailblazing artists like Jlin and Jana Rush.
Audio Assault ends with "Sonic Warfare," whose digidub synths, repetitive vocoder chop and jittery drums—not to mention title—is a summary of everything Hyperdub does right. It's one of those records that feels like a perfect marriage of artist and label, someone respected and talented taking a vital, regional sound to new, global heights.