2009 was a huge year for Joy Orbison, whose Hyph Mngo sat prettily atop just about every end of year chart. While the concept of marrying dubstep with house and techno is not necessarily revolutionary, Orbison’s sounds, an infusion of 2-step, jungle, R & B and house wrapped in some gorgeous old-school-but-still-fresh package is something that made just about everyone sit up with slightly widening jaws..
For Will Saul’s Aus, Orbison doesn’t disappoint. He picks up where he left off with Hyph Mngo; So Derobe has a hypnotic cascading melody, a chopped-up garagey vocal loop (which turns into a lovely soft gentle moan, like he’s taken the vocal and thrown a pillow over its head) and then, of course, the big heavy bassline. It’s just damn gorgeous, and leaves you grinning from ear to ear. While Joy Orbison’s dubstep cousins have often alienated this self-confessed house head with an aggression that often pained these fragile ears (2562, Pangaea and Martyn notable exceptions) here, he has found an infusion of sounds that feel very real, very natural and wholly unique; he seems a producer who has found a perfect voice in a very crowded room and whose greatest asset is his unequivocal separation from any pigeon holing or genre labelling.
The Shrew Would Have Cushioned the Blow is a bit pacier, it’s rolling drums and percussion producing an undeniably catchy groove. This is ‘almost-house’ but with a heavy dose of 2-step, a bass heavy feast for your ears as they get pulled in all sorts of directions. Big synths and a wonderful melody that tumbles up and down, concluding in a wonderful drop is the highlight here; yet it is again Orbison’s bridging of genres, his blurring of the lines of what we think we should be hearing, which is the overriding memory of the Shrew.
Actress’ remix is a trippy, longer workout and will perhaps not receive the plaudits of The Shrew, its stripped down wonky elements will still find fans though. The Shrew is a stunning release that reaffirms that the hype behind Joy Orbison is not based on a whim or a one hit wonder. Whether his genre bridging sound will remain as fresh in one or even five years I cannot tell, but for now we should feel lucky little buggers that there is a producer who is happy to break the rules with such sublime confidence. A unique talent if there ever was one.