7even is a label we normally associate with reliably powerful, techno-crisp dubstep, so this has to count as their most adventurous and surprising offering yet. Why? Well, there are vocals, and pretty good vocals at that - particularly impressive is the strung-out, sub-heavy boy-girl duet 'You Live In Me', which sounds like Portishead might if they'd grown up raving at FWD. The same vocal partnership also lights up 'Stop', an uptempo techno stepper, while on 'Forest' the human voices recede into the shadows, allowing us to focus on the low-slung breaks and enhanced bottom-end - it's no exaggeration to say that this one sounds like the missing link between early jungle and early DMZ/Burial. It's hard to pinpoint what exactly makes these tracks work so terrifically, but we guess it has a lot do with how well-judged the deployment of vocals actually is: they're used as more than mere texture, but they're not quite given a leading role either. Anyway: really nice EP, definitely our favourite 7even in a long time.
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7even is a label we normally associate with reliably powerful, techno-crisp dubstep, so this has to count as their most adventurous and surprising offering yet. Why? Well, there are vocals, and pretty good vocals at that - particularly impressive is the strung-out, sub-heavy boy-girl duet 'You Live In Me', which sounds like Portishead might if they'd grown up raving at FWD. The same vocal partnership also lights up 'Stop', an uptempo techno stepper, while on 'Forest' the human voices recede into the shadows, allowing us to focus on the low-slung breaks and enhanced bottom-end - it's no exaggeration to say that this one sounds like the missing link between early jungle and early DMZ/Burial. It's hard to pinpoint what exactly makes these tracks work so terrifically, but we guess it has a lot do with how well-judged the deployment of vocals actually is: they're used as more than mere texture, but they're not quite given a leading role either. Anyway: really nice EP, definitely our favourite 7even in a long time.
7even is a label we normally associate with reliably powerful, techno-crisp dubstep, so this has to count as their most adventurous and surprising offering yet. Why? Well, there are vocals, and pretty good vocals at that - particularly impressive is the strung-out, sub-heavy boy-girl duet 'You Live In Me', which sounds like Portishead might if they'd grown up raving at FWD. The same vocal partnership also lights up 'Stop', an uptempo techno stepper, while on 'Forest' the human voices recede into the shadows, allowing us to focus on the low-slung breaks and enhanced bottom-end - it's no exaggeration to say that this one sounds like the missing link between early jungle and early DMZ/Burial. It's hard to pinpoint what exactly makes these tracks work so terrifically, but we guess it has a lot do with how well-judged the deployment of vocals actually is: they're used as more than mere texture, but they're not quite given a leading role either. Anyway: really nice EP, definitely our favourite 7even in a long time.