When the vocals are up front, it’s easy to wash out the beauty, elegance and subtly on which the genre was built. The strength of bass music is, after all, the bass. Despite the strength of both Miguel’s and Julia Michaels’ contributions, the vocals are overpowering to the extent that they’re distracting. Once again, the need to turn it into an R&B track seems to work against the track rather that for it. The sound of delicate woodwinds and hollow notes underscore high pressure kicks and vocal samples. The music under “Light Me Up” is notably innovative. Unfortunately, “Shrine” is the beginning of a parade of guest appearances and featured vocalists-often the harbinger of electronic producers losing their way or possibly the confidence in their ability to make music that stands on its own merits. The track inspires hope that it will set the tone for the rest of the record. You can tell by the more minimalist melancholy on opener “Feel Free” that RL Grime is on the top of his game as a producer.
This is the sound that’s all over RL Grime’s latest release, Nova. The guttural growl of intense bass noise was replaced with a wash of soaring synths, a firehose of acid foam and house music soul. As drum ‘n’ bass and dubstep both tried to squeeze into UK charts, artists embraced a high-pitched treble drone.
Somewhere in there however, the UK decided to go in a different direction. It peaked with early work from Excision and, yes, even Skrillex. The best of dubstep was always in the early days when it was fresh and experimental. Though the death of dubstep has certainly been exaggerated-the genre even inviting scoffs from club kids insisting that what you’re hearing is and always has been merely EDM or electro-it’s been a minute since anything truly compelling has surfaced from the underground.
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