Blocks and Escher’s own label Narratives Music returns with its second release of 2018 and presents a package of special music that has gained regular plays across BBC Radio 1 and throughout the summer festival season.
The A Side of this split single sees the relative newcomer, Ilk, shine brightly with “The Sound of Falling”. This beautifully emotive piece toes the line between melancholia and energy with its instantly recognisable intro of doppler effect brass fading down into a wall of reece and driving percussion. Having gained weekly plays on Rene La Vice’s radio show, featured as DJMag’s Stone Cold killer track for September and gained the highest praise from the likes of Doc Scott; “The Sound of Falling” is as close as Narratives Music gets to a ‘summer anthem’.
The double A side see’s SB81 return to the Narratives Camp with the futuristic tech step of “Reversal”. Cold and minimal, this piece cuts a contrasting tone to the A Side and replaces emotion with sheer mood and a narrative wholeheartedly dystopian. For a track with little emphasis on soul, “Reversal” has still fed the appetite across the sub genres of drum & bass and found its way into the record bag of luminaries such as Lenzman, Kid Drama and Loxy to name but a few.
With the completion and imminent release of Blocks & Escher’s debut album for Metalheadz, the duo turn their attention firmly back to their own label and kick off a stream of releases for 2018.
Narratives is proud to present this single from one of Blocks & Escher favourite artists, SB81. Shaun Bateman aka SB81 has released on labels across the Drum and Bass scene, in most recent years on the Metalheadz camp and crowned an amazing 2017 with his remix of J Majiks seminal classic “It’s Yours”.
SB81’s debut for Narratives, once again combines the artists passion for late 90s authenticity with the production of today. A producer who wears his influences on his sleeve, the A Side here draws on a time when austere tech drums effortlessly danced amidst whirling organic strings,stabs and synth roars.
The flip side offers an ear catching display in rhythm experimentation, subversion and broad strokes of colour. At times claustrophobic, at times dense but on occasion drenched in hopeful strings and emotion. A track to lose oneself in and to raise questions - a notion only enforced by the repeated vocal line, asking “Who are you?”..
Blocks & Escher are very proud to present Narratives 010 and with it the follow up release to Rhyming in Fives’ 2013 debut. It is over a year since Rhyming in Fives grabbed the attention of Drum & Bass and wider bass music scenes with the genre blurring Hindsight EP; garnering Single of the Month in Mixmag, BBC Radio play from the likes of Mistajam, and being hailed by a diverse range of DJs from Paul Woolford and Doc Scott to Jamie Vexx and Om Unit.
As quickly as Rhyming in Fives arrived, the elusive artist retreated back into the studio leaving only the debut EP and a much acclaimed podcast to be revisited and celebrated.
A year on and at last we are shown that the time has been well spent. The Light Leaks EP shows how the sound has matured and blossomed; an extended player of variety and woven themes that most long player albums could only aspire to be.
Flickering through tempo and mood, dancefloor energy to reflective melancholy, Light Leaks crafts a journey and tale that fans of Narratives Music will have grown accustomed to, but painted in a way that only Rhyming in Fives can.
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