Inevitably out of the fertile hub of Bristol, the Multiverse studio is given a five year commemoration of services to labels such as Tectonic, Earwax and Caravan. Producing some of the most vacantly intense and forward-projecting electronica and dubstep in the last decade, housing marquee names, on the basis of output Multiverse must be a dank, sterile, near inhospitable place to work, yet with a musty air of digital kinesis. Perfect for the creation of electronica sitting in the margins and dubstep ranging from shoot on sight to waiting for the perfect moment to kidnap souls, undetectable to the naked eye.
Vex’d and Baobinga & ID bustling through between steps two and four do dubstep at its most baying. Bass is then passed to assassins playing hide and seek in chrome warrens, seeing who’s first to gulp loudest. Gripping games of cat and mouse ensue, except that moggy and the rodent are armour-plated and, as per Pinch & P Dutty’s War Dub, can smell fear with nostrils trained in industrial combat. SNO’s Disturbance has the fuzz on its tail but captures the thrill of the chase in heightened slow motion, Skream spins in outer space, downed by agile bongo percussions, and Joker & Ginz’ ever-ready Purple City shows dubstep’s frayed nerves and deep fried edges.
The most conspicuous - read misplaced – inclusion is The Body Snatchers’ Big Ass Mini Skirt. Though it gives the doldrums a spring clean, it’s called Dark Matter for a reason, the crunk breaks and leering in the club definitely doing touting for business in the wrong arena. Electronic ambiguity from the shorn wiring of Moving Ninja scuttles like dubstep’s servant while allied to techno circles. Joker’s Stuck in the System poses the kind of horn horsepower that TI usually rhymes over while showing the comp’s glimpses of emotional value.
After another shove from Vex’d gets disc two up and running, Loefah & Skream’s 28 Grams gets knee deep in a dub stakeout and signifies the super lowness of the second episode, basslines shaking while simultaneously being smothered. Cyrus’ Indian Stomp has the Indian bit right, lighting incense sticks around it and treating the compilation to a soothingly minimal open air massage. Cat and mouse replaced by joining sleight of hands, the emptiness, save for tumbleweed drifts of effects, heartening as it emits a tiny but piercing glow. Creeping discomfort is Multiverse’s ace hand however, the bridge to the roads leading in and out of dubstep, showing versatility while keeping a close-knit set of ideas and values. Loefah’s painstaking Systemdoesn’t know whether to befriend the alien tractor beam or wave its pitchfork at it as fear returns, and Moving Ninja’s Uranium whispers death on a piece of IDM that would win any limbo competition, before the future assailants brandishing flare guns reappear on Joker’s Psychedelic Highway.
Ten-minute minimal glitch house from October extends the Multiverse panorama: maybe another that’s misplaced in the long run, tempered by the whirring fault-thrower Euro Dance Hit, gradually intensifying to sound like it would nuke every novelty holiday record one by one. Emptyset’s Demian concoctstheir usual Bristolian sense of fascinatingly ultra-deep techno dread. It finishes another educational trip to the West Country, the Multiverse network more than in prime position to make the next half a decade their own as well.
Tracklisting:
Disc One
1. Vex'd – Lion
2. Circuit Breaker - Phonque (October remix)
3. Moving Ninja - Witchdokta
4. Pinch & P Dutty - War Dub
5. S.N.O - Disturbance
6. Skream - Bahl Fwd
7. Joker - Stuck in the System
8. The Body snatchers - Big Ass Mini Skirt
9. 2562 - Techno Dread
10. Joker & Ginz - Purple City
11. Pinch ft. Yolanda - Get Up (RSD remix)
12. Baobinga & ID - Tongue Riddim
Disc Two
1. Vex'd - Pop Pop
2. Loefah & Skream - 28 Grams
3. Cyrus - Indian Stomp
4. Pinch - Qawwali / Brighter Day
5. Loefah - System
6. Moving Ninja - Uranium
7. October - Three Drops
8. Joker - Psychedelic Runway
9. October - Euro Dance Hit
10. Emptyset - Gate 4
11. 2562 - Unbalance
12. Emptyset - Demian