A surprise for those expecting
Jon Phonics to carry on in
the role of studious hip-hop beatmaker, '
Grid
Games' holds him down as a bass-lead electronic dealer (most likely in a
glitch category) serving his fair share of punishment after credits for
Verb T,
Fliptrix,
Phoenix da Icefire and
M9. The
BUG hook-up
'Jack Duckworth' is a writhing après-bass of absorbing angles and
equations, seeking chillout with a busy futurist panorama. Leaving
Bill Tarmey
out of the picture was not as big a risk as first thought. The galvanising
synth mathematics takes as big a chill pill with revealing properties, thanks
to
Ghost Mutt’s remix bending minds through microchips boiling down until some
Quasimoto-like pipe-ups and half a two-step rhythm tell you to leave the
armchair, epitomising the EP catching you mid-get up.
'
Romes' has the
same back-up of firepower and beat snaps calmed down by synth glazes, putting
into your head the image of a Stormtrooper hitting the Jacuzzi in full body
armour and fiercely fiddling the jets setting back and forth.
Pedestrian’s mix deals
in solitude with currents and frequencies redirected to glance the surface...then
you put the headphones in to enjoy the feeling of easing back while major voltage
runs through your veins.
Phonics’
scholarly nature never deserts him, with
'Double
Vision' sounding like
RJD2 plugged into extra sockets via
Dilla bass dust
and slumps, chairing an international, intergalactic assembly with
Jeeks for a
mini electric-galactic epic. Only
Kid Kanevil’s 8-bit cook up of
'Swamp Donkey' has half a mind on putting
microphonists back in the spotlight, the JP collabo with
S-Type transformed
into a cooling glitch-hop forecast open to cocky samples and sudden shakes of
surprise. If this is a back-up plan away from the day to day beats and rhymes,
it could well end up as the one taking up more of Phonics’ time.