Tangram

Unassuming cover, kick-ass contents...

An admission: I love dubstep. I know it's quite trendy to knock it and having listened to quite a few albums filled with nothing but Whomp-Whomp-Whomp, I can see why it's fallen out of favour so fast. But if there's one electronic sub-genre that feels like the future, it's this one. Music for spaceships, albeit dark stricken ones, set adrift with deadly aliens lurking around every corner.

And that's how I'd describe Tangram by Reso. Part breakbeat, part dark electronica, all earth-shattering bassline, this is dubstep from the year 3000. From the epic opener 'Exoframe' onwards, with its sci-fi breaks, soundtrack synthesisers and relentless bass, Tangram throws one hard-edged tune after another. 'Creature', quite appropriately, feels like something from another planet, throwing tough beats at you from the outset, before 'Axion' takes the pace up another level with some epic freeform drumming and terrifyingly big bassy wobble. It's thrilling stuff - just don't listen with the lights off.



The album does have lighter moments, 'Coronium' is a spacey ambient piece, leading up to 'Simple Pleasures' a slow breakbeat number with more sounds made from the infinite. 'Virtua Rhythm' is old skool DnB, with a hint of early 00's video game beat 'em up soundtrack thrown in for good measure.

From 'Nempo' onwards things get darker and darker, big drums, crushing bass and metallic screeches are tempered against an almost oriental sound. 'Backwards glance' is a funky slice of sci-fi two-step, before 'Half life's' epic synths build and stunning bass hits build up to the album's stand out track: 'Ishimura'. Sampling science fiction horror video game Dead Space, this is a track every bit as frightening as facing flesh eating aliens in the dark. Closer 'Tabris' is a frenzy of breaks and bass, a joyfully noisy affair that gets the blood pumping like a rocket trip to an far away world.

Tangram is dubstep, but not as we know it. And I'm proud to say I love it...