August: 7 bass & club releases you need to hear this month

Jikuroux 'Cradle Bay' (DECISIONS)

Last year’s ‘Ruptured Pulse’ EP, by Sydney producer and DJ Jikuroux, was one of the most slept-on releases of the year. The Decisions artist was playing around with the dark spaces of percussion in a way that no one else was, twisting bubbly tones around gasps and a brilliantly repurposed Britney Spears sample. This new one, ‘Cradle Bay’, finds her working with a more maximalist sound, and it pays off in a big way. The title track is ominous and stately, orienting around lilting chords; ‘Themed Break’ imbues the high-energy club space with a sombre r’n’b tinge, not unlike the work of Sinjin Hawke or Strict Face. Working with the idea of “reimagining anxiety as something beautiful”, the songs swell and dissipate, underscoring the all-consuming nature of anxious energy – how it can propel us forward in one moment, and draw us back in the next. Truly reflective moments in the dance are rare, but when they come to us, the mind-body alignment lends itself to a contentedness that’s hard to tap into elsewhere. ‘Cradle Bay’ explores wide spectrums of darkness and light, vulnerability and security, stability and unsteadiness – let it subsume you.

9/10