Martyn - Masks / Viper

01. Masks
02. Viper (Ghost People Edit)
03. Viper (London Arches Edit)

Eagerly anticipated return for Martyn, heralding his upcoming sophomore album on Brainfeeder. 'Masks' is suave, dynamic but rude-as-f*ck steppers' house, precision engineered to rough up dancefloors without breaking a sweat - istening to the pinched chords and pistoning, minimal drum-funk on this badboy makes pretty much all club gear we've heard this year sound a wee bit sluggish and toothless. 'Viper' appears in two versions: a kickless but still plenty 'floor-wrecking version that sound like Carl Craig with some post-junglist attitude, and then the trackier London Arches Edit. On the latter Martyn pays tribute to the ravers of SE1 with a radged-up 4/4 banger: the riffage is rudimentary, but the arrangement is complex and perfectly weight-distributed, excruciating tension and exquisite release wrought out of canny percussion edits, hectoring bleeps, low-flying strings and a groove as grimy as a club's toilet floor come 6am. Potent stuff...www.boomkat.com