By now I’m sure you’re all aware that DJ Zinc’s ditched d’n'b for his new ‘crack house’ sound.
Well, Zinc’s ‘Bingo Beats’ just sent over his highly anticipated 10 track EP for review and has granted a couple of low bit-rate downloads too.
Now, I’ve never really been a fan of drum ‘n bass, but Zinc’s was of the junglist, low-slung, dusty beats variety. And ‘Super Sharp Shooter’ remains a classic to this day, with its piping bassline and gentle rattling of d’n'b beats.
The Crack House EP is a showcase of Zinc’s new 4X4 sound – a refreshing blend that fuses elements of house, jungle, grime, breaks, dubstep and electro without ever coming off as gimmicky or over-ambitious. He draws on the current sounds of Sinden and Switch (Zinc says house always bored him until the bloggy, fidget bunch came along). What with all the different influences, you would have thought the EP would lapse into a messy meld of convoluted, maximal sillyness. It doesn’t. Junglist drums, it turns out, go rather well with bass-orientated house (discovered by Zinc when in Japan he played a strange set of two halves – 4X4 sounds and d’n'b). Airy hoover bass, plenty of wobble and generous servings of crashing, fervent percussion percolate this EP, its clearly directed squarely at the dancefloor. The EP contains a couple of tasty guest appearances from Benga, Sweetie Irie, Angela Hunte and No Lay. I highly recommends you pick up this EP – all ten tracks are worth your money – from Beatport or Itunes.
Zinc’s come up with a winning formula by combining the clamorous energy of jump-up with the pumping beats of house. Here’s a couple of tasters from the EP – reduced in quality to encourage you to buy the whole release:
Blunt Edge has recently received attention from the likes of Annie Mac, Brodinski and Fake Blood. Lazy synths and a drowsy melody plod alongside an old-school house vibe. This grows with every listen:
Zinc – Blunt Edge [pelski highly recommends]
Nu Sound wields a deep, growling bassline, whilst tribal congas gently tap over the top:
Zinc – Nu Sound [pelski highly recommends]
You may remember Zinc’s seminal 1999 ’138 trek’, with its pioneering 2-step garage beats, it was later followed by a d’n'b rework ’178 trek’. Zinc’s now pulled the BPM back to his crack house four-to-the-floor tempo in ’128 trek’:
Wobbly bass and rattling drum patterns back female MC No Lay’s (from grime collective Unorthodox Crew) boisterous vocals in Killa Sound:
What with Clipz’s reinvention as Redlight and Beni’s as Jack Beats, I welcome this new influx of d’n'b artists translating their abilities to exciting new strands of house. And I’d also like to take this opportunity, with a cheeky smirk, to say to them: I told you so. House rules.
