2009年 Oct 7日 Wednesday, 10:17
Nick Douwma a.k.a. Sub Focus came to the DnB scene from Liverpool, UK in 2004, and has already broken through with a number of popular tracks released in his first year including "Acid Test", and "X-Ray". Entirely self taught, he was noticed at first by Andy C, and in a matter of months, he went from being one of many wannabe producers to becoming a permanent fixture of the award winning Ram Records family.
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Just skip past the first minute if you dare. It`s the best thing John Carpenter hasn`t recorded in several years. Sub Focus eagerly awaited debut album has come as a very welcome and unexpected surprise. I was expecting the bangers we already know and love such as recent funky ass, Pendulum-baiting "Rock It" (surely the bastard drum & bass cousin of Daft Punk`s "Robot Rock" ?) and the massive wonky time clown step anthem "Timewarp" complete with the massive hoovers that don`t know if they are ascending or descending.
I could even expect tracks like the later Photek / later Rufugie Kru stylings of "World Of Hurt" - the basslines and distorted synths although at complete odds with the clear vocals are perfectly counterbalanced, rescuing what could have been a little of a disaster in unsure hands. Other drum & bass tracks such as "Follow The Light" move towards the typical Hospital sound without managing to sound quite as Jazz-Wanky as occassionally the Hospital sound can drift towards thanks to a subtle trance influence, similar to the sound of late 90`s Blue Amazon with the then unaffected influence of what was to happen to trance, if in spirit if not in tempo.
It`s really great to hear some fantasticly memorable songs in here also - "Splash" has Euro-riff all over it, as does "Triple X". There`s a definite and refreshing intent to make a good album rather than just a collection of good tracks. And that`s the jump off point for what makes this album. Look away now if you`re a Sub Focus fanatic and don`t want to have the album ruined …
This is an album that just happens to have some Drum & Bass tracks on it. It also has some bloody great old school breakbeat. And House. And Dubstep. And Fidget-House. This makes it a great album for anyone remotely interested in Dance Music, and contender for the Dance Music album of the year.
Yes, it took me three listens to suddenly realise it, but "Last Jungle" is The Future Sound Of London`s "Papua New Guinea". Or just a few samples away from being it anyway. The fact that it took me three listens is testament to how well it`s constructed however. It bears repeated listening, and it`s respectful enough to get away with it, and has just enough tipping of the hat to early Omni Trio to get away with it. We`re still in breakbeat territory however at this point.
But when you get to "Move Higher" you`ve moved to a completely different part of the club. Calvin Harris would be proud of the huge riff here. A contender for another single surely as some remixes will take this in directions other than the house / fidget dancefloor it sits in for some parts of the track. Stick a complete vocal on it and there will be a top 40 hit in this. Then there`s the Italio-Piano house of "This Could Be Real", and the dubstep of album closer "Coming Closer". Despite not being in the genre we know Sub Focus for, never at any point does any of it sound anything less than credible.
1. Sub Focus - Let The Story Begin (4:53)
2. Sub Focus - World Of Hurt (4:25)
3. Sub Focus - Follow The Light (5:34)
4. Sub Focus - Last Jungle (3:39)
5. Sub Focus - Deep Space (4:37)
6. Sub Focus - Rock It (4:35)
7. Sub Focus - Move Higher (4:12)
8. Sub Focus - Vapourise (4:05)
9. Sub Focus - Triple X (4:02)
10. Sub Focus - Could This Be Real (3:35)
11. Sub Focus - Splash (3:58)
12. Sub Focus - Timewarp (4:37)
13. Sub Focus - Coming Closer (3:35)
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