REVIEW: SULLY – CARRIER (KEYSOUND RECORDINGS)

Sully
Carrier
Keysound Recordings

As fantastic a resource as itunes is, its genre column tends to be about as vague and misguided as a music review in The Express (see their review of PJ Harvey’s latest album). Nonetheless, after uploading Carrier by Sully into my library, the genre read ‘dubstep/ grime’. This specificity immediately struck me as something of an anomaly for itunes, so it was with these dual genres in mind that I immersed myself into Carrier.

Carrier’s opening two tracks, ‘It’s Your Love’ and ’2 Hearts’ work as a paean to the garage and sub-bass aesthetic that is currently sweeping the nation’s electronic scene, a similarity that will undoubtedly invite sceptics to claim that Sully a.k.a Jack Stevens is merely jumping on the mutating bass zeitgeist ‘11. Yet on further inspection into his back catalogue, there is noticeable bend towards the 90s garage scene pioneered by Groove Chronicles and El-B, a track through which Sully has been traversing for the past few years, long before any ridiculous prefixes were attached to garage (see future, dark or emotional).

‘I Know’ and Trust’ are lush, expansive tracks, their 808 snaps and vocal loops buffeting against moody strings and keys at a tempo last used for jungle. ‘In Some Pattern’ opens with a rugged 2-step flex that is smoothed out by refreshingly anthemic synth chords, and a tribal style funky breakdown. ‘Encona’ is a techno-infused cut in the Horsepower/ Maddslinky tradition, that serves as the calm before the proverbial storm as Sully ups the grime ante with ‘Let You’ and the half-step ‘Scram’ in quick succession, adding a minimal element of chilly urban grit to the proceedings.

Released on Blackdown’s Keysound Recordings, Carrier’s mystical tone encourages comparisons with the vampiric buffet of hooded, elusive producers that only come out when it’s dark. Granted; Sully interviews, live shows and pictures are rare. He lives a determinedly low-key existence, almost to a fault. While this doesn’t do a great deal to dispel the Burial tag that has been waved around in his direction, this mystique, however intentional, should not be cause for distraction from what is, ultimately, a defining record for the current state of dubstep, 2-step or any kind of step.

Filed under: Artists, Bass, Dub-step, Electronic, Reviews by Lev