dexplicit ft lsg - handle this

i love dexplicit. even when totally misfiring (like on the offish rmx of "oh i think they like me" what was up with that eh??) he has a principled soundworld which will force you to vote YES/NO i love/hate dexplicit and all he stands for. his thing is sort of dancehall dude's ability to maximize tiny slivers of melodic activity x'd with ukg dude's exploratory drum programming mania, pottering fruitfully in grey areas between grime and 4x4. often trying to test how physical and rushy you can make a beat while remaining divorced from house & breakbeat, taken to a extreme on last year's "blazer" off the real hench ep - who would have thought you could bust aussie d+b levels of intensity on a less annoying bpm? "handle this" is less dexplosive but it has an attractively light rnb vocal and snakey synths and a heavy bassline for the chorus.

(judging from a recent 1xtra ukgmixshow, dexplicit has begun to embrace proper 4x4 to mostly middling effect but gosh check out nana - "lose control", it's on the dexplicit myspace QL)

carmen reece - hey lover (mj cole rmx)

last year carmen reece had a dexplicit rmx of her almost-hit "u got me". it was aight. i was just trying to do a good segue. i don't think ive heard the og version of "hey lover" but this rmx by the world's most excellent human being is wicked, i love carmen's voice cos she's always trying really hard and doing unexpected yelps! cole as always makes really bad ideas such as LAYING DOWN FUNKY BREAKS seem like really good ideas thru force of will and being the yngwie malmsteen of the ukg game.

jiggalo ft lui lou - leaving you

i quite like this track but i am also putting it here to illustrate what the dexplicit song does right and many others do WRONG WRONG WRONG! it's like when the moment comes to write a vocal for their impressive-yet-inert ghostly instrumental (someone txt mary anne hobbnobs cos i think i just recognized DUBSTEP FLAVAS) rngists gotta try and match the doomy downbeat drama with more doomy downbeat drama on top! that's not fun! and while this is a dilemma for anyone trying to write a good rnb song from a loop rather than on babyface's acoustic guitar, that doesn't absolve rngists of responsibility to make their songs connect instead of just exist, which is what "leaving you" pleasantly does. so it turns out crazy futurismo spazz beat + wailing isnt enough after all?!?! (ha ha it is really suckers - cf. the amazingly hot "let me take u away" by davinche & sadie)

alex mills - food for thought

i recorded this about nine months ago but well here we are and it's not even on aim high 3! it is her off the roll deep album, with danny weed and arsenal of bongos, psk crashes and military bells. it was interesting at the time to compare this to teirra mari's similarly metallic and tuff-edged "no daddy", where the lack of melodic flourish and push-forward beat evokes one of them boring one-chord rock songs that are meant to eventually hit us with THE GROOVE get some chords, rockers! the "food for thought" beat meanwhile exists in a woozy limbo, making me think of nothing so much as alex mills being rolled along a boiler room floor in slo-mo, somehow finding the fortitude to sing her scarily/swearily direct tale of babydrama at the same time. heavy!