Deadbeat Adventures In Hyper Reality

Opening up this tidy three track affair is ‘Hot Mass’, a static ridden, urgent feeling dub cut with thumping kicks, skewed synth stabs and swathes of reverb and textural layering that really stand it apart. It’s the sort of peak time back room bomb that will work wonders on the heads. Then comes ‘Deep Space’, a much more heads down affair that tunnels deep into a humid, sleek dub cavern. Subtle, deeply buried percussive sounds add to the infectiousness of the groove and Deadbeat’s trademark synths slowly emerge from below to envelop the drums and flip things into cantering, frictionless techno mode. Lastly, ‘7th & 33rd’ is a much more prickly, bristling, broken beat affair with a keen sense of afro rhythm, tribal chanting and hiccupping drums that all tumble around each other in captivating and hugely original ways. This is another inventive EP that covers lots of ground in plenty of style. Both Deadbeat and Rhythm Cult, then, have come up trumps.