The Rise – Descent

Label: Pagoda Format: CD

The Rise - DescentHaving hung out with the Reinforced Records crew, as well as The Future Sound Of London in North-west London while cutting his teeth on the sampler, it’s no surprise that The Rise (AKA Simon Wells) makes the kind of semi-abstracted Techstep Drum & Bass that propelled his breakbeat science in Vortexation and Headstone Lane (denizens of the area may notice a, hmmmm, “streetwise” trend in his choice of names) identities onto EPs for the former label and the latter’s EBV imprint. What’s a bit more different is that he used to be guitarist with post-modern punks Snuff, but there are none of that band’s quirky advertising covers or football-worshipping on Descent.

Fortunately it’s highly structured beats and loops with an electronic topping instead, and very good too. Warbling bass, squirming synths, distorted snatches of sound put through the hard-disc mangle, and coming out freshy-squeezed the other side. There are some Rock touches, like the guitar which writhes out of “Pitch”, which adds to the variety of the breakbeat genre, which it must be said can get a little obsessed with its electronics at the expense of any other musical sources. Almost reeking of the piss-stained tube bridges and graffitied alleyways of Harlesden which decorate its cover, Descent oozes vibrant urbanism, sometimes with all the attendant edgy paranoia that particular borough can inspire, with the stand-out piece in this style being “Tecnovont”.

It”s not all gloom and darkling beats and dubbed-up subbass though, with some sprightly buzzing sneers among the depth-charging boom and hopping rhythms, and a track like “Clock Shadow” ticks along with the best of the technicians while allowing space for more reality-based samples like the flute to make their presence felt; the use of door creaks plus plain and treated cymbal snippets as part of the percussion of “Left Us” being particularly effective. Wells has a penchant for melody too, but not at the expense of the drum programming; instead when they appear, tunes usually blend quite subtly into the whole track. Variety is the album’s keyword, which in itself is a refreshing enough trend, and the whole sticks together coherently enough to make it a CD for listening to in one session, drifting off into its own cyclical world for the closing “It’s Over”.

-Freq1C-

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