Dream Continuum - Reworkz EP

Hallelujah, Me and Tobias pretty much wait on every new Machinedrum release like chronic kidney disease patients wait for dialysis, but thankfully, we never have to wait that long. As mentioned previously, Reworkz find the tireless Travis Stewart and mysterious Jim Cole (aka Om Unit aka Phillip D. Kick) exploring the theoretical middle-ground between jungle and juke. Their individual approaches to this niche thus far have left something to be desired, Cole's work appropriated the soaring synth string, vocal samples and rasta-isms of 90s jungle classics with the cardio-vascular rhythms and bangs of footwork whereas Travis sought to deconstruct jungle's frenzied breaks and confine them to the short, immediate, jukey loops but in both cases the unique appeal of both styles ran parallel with each other and very rarely merged to form something completely new. Reworkz offers a completely different angle entirely in which the disorientating intricacies of the classic jungle swing are executed with the cold, harsh quantization of juke and brought into focus by Stewarts quint-essential transcendent harmonic lifts. 'B Free' surges on a cosmic arc with all the intensity of a mid-90s dark jungle work out constructed out of the cold tones of 808 snares, claps, and hi-hats. 'Set It' however, breaks down its breaks to individual impulses and collages them into hybrid delirium in which the rasta vocals hammer into the track as hard as the ghetto equivalent. 'Give a Little Luv' showcases Machinedrum's current style - the rolling bangs-cum-drone bass, the intricate snare patterns, the buzzing synths. But what is really impressive about this song, and EP in general, is the perfect synthesis of the two genres, as we glide ecstatically from bangs to breaks and back again. Jungle's flailing cymbals compliment the intensity of footwork rhythms stunningly and, conversely, juke's bangs deftly mimic jungle's bass pressure. In the end we have in our hands a beautifully crafted and imaginated piece of dance music.