October: 8 bass releases you need to hear this month
Bass in your face
Various 'Grime Work' (Sublow Sounds)
This compilation EP shares five tracks from producers who are all interested in mixing up the genres of grime and footwork, hence its title. While footwork and jungle are natural brethren at 160 bpm, grime feels like more of a stretch. But history has taught us that adding grimy elements to most genres works, so no real surprise that this does, too. It mostly operates on sonic signifiers: footwork snares and hi-hats, grimy minor-key basslines and eski clicks. It’s essentially pitched-up grime with added percussion. As with most grime, the interplay between half-step stagger and the uptempo (in this case, the freneticism of footwork’s 160 bpm tempo) creates a pleasurable dyamic. But none of these producers truly have the chops yet to make this experiment anything more than a fun diversion.
7/10