Kontext - Convex Curved Mirror

A Convex Curved Mirror
B Hometown Swamp

Immerse Records possesses an incredibly healthy back catalogue (including releases from Forsaken and Benga & Walsh) and with it they've actively attempted to cross platforms and create their own groove. Pooling from the clicks and white noise percussion of minimal techno and the weighted rumble of deep sub bass-infused dubstep, Kontext returns here to the Bristol-based label for his second wax outing, dictating a fresh and pummeling pathway as he goes.

"Convex Curved Mirror" fuses deep chord stabs with playfully arpeggiated midrange synth incisions that slice through the persistent kick drum and potent low end combination effortlessly, creating a slightly disjointed melody. Beneath the scattershot theme lies some deeply impressive programming; underlying the resonating kick drums with found sound snatches of distant voices and pulses of power bass, Kontext brings a shade of the modified 2-step skip to the minimal tech drum shadow, giving the powerful stomp an erratic kind of shoulder-heavy lean.

"Hometown Swamp" does employ a lot of the same stylistic techniques as —Convex Curved Mirror"—the minimal use of any discernable snare drum, the infectious skip and the snatches of every day ambience—but Kontext uses simple changes in approach to display an entirely different mood. Layering his clicks and underpinning his poignant drum moments with subtle blasts of noise he manages to make the top end of his drums sound crisp, as if they were playing through a distant radio, while the heavy hit of the kick drum fashions a hole in your sternum. Where the A side flickers its melody and purposefully stabs its bass, the flip swells with texture and wobbles its lower frequencies, spurring movement rather than demanding it...www.residentadvisor.net