It’s no secret that grime has begun to unshackle itself from its once solitary London isolation. Not only are British regional variations beginning to bubble up, international artists like Houston’s Rabit and Australia’s Strict Face have appropriated grimes’s cold, harsh themes and aesthetics.
At the forefront of the expansion of the genre’s instrumental arm has been Boxed, the London club night and scene incubator around which many of the most prominent producers amass. Boxed is run by Mr. Mitch (recent Planet Mu signee and owner of Gobstopper Records), Slackk (lynchpin and now R&S allum), Logos (weightless pioneer and Mumdance collaborator), and Oil Gang. It is to instrumental grime what FWD>> and DMZ were to dubstep: the melting pot of styles when tunes get birthed and tested, when micro-scenes gestate and producers — new and old — mingle with adherents. It is the scene incarnate.
Iglew, a young artist based in Leeds, is the newest signing to Mitch’s Gobstopper label (a now formidable institution that has more eyes on it than ever due to its strong Planet Mu connection), and his debut EP Urban Myth is a good indicator of how grime has evolved from its brash, humble beginnings at the beginning of the millennium to how it sounds today — simple toned, minimal, melodic, exotic yet still brimming with the youthful naivety and energy that was so endearing at its inception.
We have an exclusive stream of the EP’s closer, the ethereal sawtooth and square-wave-powered “Cymatism,” a heady slice of minimalism that epitomizes the direction the genre is heading at this moment in time: weightless, with the same reliance on space that characterised dubsteps first iterations. Take a peek below and cop the EP from Bleep or Redeye. It’s out officially next week.
• Iglew: https://soundcloud.com/iglew92
• Gobstopper Records: http://gobstopper-records.co.uk
More about: Iglew
