Grime is a complex genre: it’s dance music, but somehow not quite. It can sound like hip-hop, yet it can function completely without MCs. For the first track on Madam X’s curated compilation Kaizen Movements Vol. 1 (stream here!), Her Records producer Sudanim delivers straight-up, no-frills instrumental grime with “Sideman.” And it makes complete sense. The compilation features both instrumental grime and grime featuring MCs, as well as very clubby and very un-clubby grime, but “Sideman” lives in an in-between space: not too clubby, but still clubby, instrumental but featuring a breath sample (and I’m a sucker for sexy breath samples). There is something both futuristic and very archaic about the track; martians landing on Earth during the Mesozoic era, perhaps. I love grime producers who trust just a few well-produced sounds. In an age where lots of dance music has a ton of fluff, it’s nice to hear a track that can do the job alone with just a few good beats and synths. And while grime can be appreciated track by track, I think, like all club music, it shines most fully in a set, where instrumental grime, grime with MCs, and, in many cases, early 2000s R&B, can all live together in a happy polyamorous marriage.
• Sudanim: https://soundcloud.com/sudanim
• Her Records: http://store.herrecords.com
• Madam X: https://soundcloud.com/madam_x
• Big People Music: https://twitter.com/BigPplMusic
More about: Sudanim
