Brackles: Songs for Endless Cities

Over the last two years, the genre of dubstep has broken into a thousand little pieces. Many of these offshoots have proven exciting, taking sounds like 2-step/garage, house, or techno and mutating dubstep’s space and shuffle into something defying both description and odds.

One of these practitioners of new, future bass music is Southeast London’s Brackles, aka Rob Kemp. Brackles’ first Planet Mu 12-inches, like “LHC” and “Rawkus”, coupled dizzying and melodic synthesizers with rolling bass, and a 2-step hop and skip that managed to have house music’s auspiciousness and dubstep’s attitude. For a snapshot of Brackles’ influences and a prediction for the future of UK bass music, this mix CD for !K7 is awfully convincing. Stand-out selections include Rishi Romero’s “African Forest”, Roska’s “I Need Love feat. Amesha”, and Brackles’ own “Blo”.