If I were asked/begged/forced-against-my-will to compile a Best of...2011 list, featuring only electronic and electronic sub-genre releases of that year, Glaswegian Russell Whyte would definitely been among the top five (possibly top three). Whyte's Rustie moniker in 2011 unleashed to the World, Glass Swords: a mighty crystalline of wonky beats, energized bass and songs that lit up the night as much as they distorted the mind. And if you're willing to repel your focus from dawdling on the fact that the guy has the expertise and knowledge of a thirty year-old hidden beneath that young producer's look, you'll come to see Warp Records once more has its fair share of the new roster of electronic music producers and musicians currently rewriting the rules and redefining the standards for others to attempt matching. While it's been nearly two years since Glass Swords dropped - and this is usually the right gap in time for us to ask when, rather than if, a new album is currently in the works - Rustie still shows no signs in letting go of that acclaimed title as being one of the forefront producers in a new age of electronic music (and all the trends that come packaged with it). The two-track single/EP in the shape of Triadzz / Slasherr combines the former new offering together with the latter single Slasherr, having been released earlier this month. It's Rustie's first offering of 2013 and a fresh, but gleefully welcome return for the thirty year-old.
Triadzz, the first of the two tracks, is in no hesitance to get going. Straight from the off the music is loud, Rustie's dexterity for in-your-face sounds carrying all the same punchy, rudimentary muster of sound you've come to expect from the man. But fortunately, we're seeing him differentiate slightly from his debut sound. Here, we're greeted by a more tribal-like dub approach in its treatment of bass and percussion. Drumbeats aren't necessarily as forward and striking on the ears, but they still carry all the necessary weight and emphasis to make you think something, or anything, is about to unveil itself. And that's exactly what happens. For a three-minute track - which isn't exactly foreign to Rustie's style of composition - the track does well in unleashing what is this rather more extroverted and lambast glitter of synthesizers and drums alike. But the way the track shifts its attention between the two opposing perspectives in such a drastic manner, yet still conveying all the intensity and energy present, is rather satisfying to experience. And with Slasherr, Whyte's earlier lenience towards more suburban and youthfully-optimistic lacing of electronic music appears to receive more of a development. It begins as perhaps one of his more popier and confident sounds to date, but don't let the initial withdraw into slight commercial tone put you off. For Rustie, this gives him the perfect opportunity to dive straight into what is a rather sweet and delicate flurry of garage bass, dubstep playfulness and beats that could easily work to a dance-floor, as much as they could an outdoor stretch to the suburban World he's clearly painting on the conceptual face of his sound.
So while I wouldn't go as far as to say this is a complete expansion on what was a fantastic debut for Rustie, the two tracks that he's presented here definitely demonstrate the Glaswegian moving out into less glittered and mind-melting textures of sound, and onto ground perhaps more closer (and physical) to the World around us. Whether or not Whyte decides on going full-stretch (or full-leather) with what is a rather more bass-trodden fusion of beats and synths, on his sophomore record, remains to be seen. But on what we've seen on from this two-track release, Rustie without question holds as much - if not more - a hunger and drive to sink his teeth deeper into the root of present-day electronic music and give it the numbingly frivolous spray of colour his debut splattered into our heads. Rustie's Triadzz / Slasherr single - now available as a 12" - is out now via Numbers Records.
Triadzz, the first of the two tracks, is in no hesitance to get going. Straight from the off the music is loud, Rustie's dexterity for in-your-face sounds carrying all the same punchy, rudimentary muster of sound you've come to expect from the man. But fortunately, we're seeing him differentiate slightly from his debut sound. Here, we're greeted by a more tribal-like dub approach in its treatment of bass and percussion. Drumbeats aren't necessarily as forward and striking on the ears, but they still carry all the necessary weight and emphasis to make you think something, or anything, is about to unveil itself. And that's exactly what happens. For a three-minute track - which isn't exactly foreign to Rustie's style of composition - the track does well in unleashing what is this rather more extroverted and lambast glitter of synthesizers and drums alike. But the way the track shifts its attention between the two opposing perspectives in such a drastic manner, yet still conveying all the intensity and energy present, is rather satisfying to experience. And with Slasherr, Whyte's earlier lenience towards more suburban and youthfully-optimistic lacing of electronic music appears to receive more of a development. It begins as perhaps one of his more popier and confident sounds to date, but don't let the initial withdraw into slight commercial tone put you off. For Rustie, this gives him the perfect opportunity to dive straight into what is a rather sweet and delicate flurry of garage bass, dubstep playfulness and beats that could easily work to a dance-floor, as much as they could an outdoor stretch to the suburban World he's clearly painting on the conceptual face of his sound.
So while I wouldn't go as far as to say this is a complete expansion on what was a fantastic debut for Rustie, the two tracks that he's presented here definitely demonstrate the Glaswegian moving out into less glittered and mind-melting textures of sound, and onto ground perhaps more closer (and physical) to the World around us. Whether or not Whyte decides on going full-stretch (or full-leather) with what is a rather more bass-trodden fusion of beats and synths, on his sophomore record, remains to be seen. But on what we've seen on from this two-track release, Rustie without question holds as much - if not more - a hunger and drive to sink his teeth deeper into the root of present-day electronic music and give it the numbingly frivolous spray of colour his debut splattered into our heads. Rustie's Triadzz / Slasherr single - now available as a 12" - is out now via Numbers Records.
~Jordan
