Nic Brown
In 2014, the immensely talented young drum & bass experimentalist Clarity released "Infinite", one of the most disgracefully undervalued albums of all time. A short time previously, "Binaural", his equally gifted Samurai label-mate and renegade Ena's full-length, had emerged to a cataract of rightly rapturous critical acclaim but if you check the comments section which followed its review in say Resident Advisor, anyone who drew attention to this apparent case of flagrant favouritism was loftily ignored. If I was Clarity I'd have been fucking livijnd and considered downing tools for good, but like the precociously gifted professional he is, he stuck to his task and continued to tinker with the fundamentals of drum & bass both to revitalise and remould this veteran genre. This two-tracker suggests his skills have lost none of their potency. "Fog" is a sparse, sinister banger during which the atmosphere of threat that cloaks its machine gun percussion grows ever more menacing before suddenly taking its leave. "Blue Ruin" is more experimental, clattering, creaking and groaning like a sentient haunted house. It's quite brilliant stuff so the question remains, why isn't this wizard of the breakbeat being lauded to the heavens?
Favorite track: Fog.