LD - Traumatic Times / Woodblock

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4...according to our Ant on Thu 26 Mar, 2009.

A surprise Hyperdub release from LD has arrived unannounced. You may be aware of his 12" with Kode9 and a split with Skream and that he's a cutting engineer at Transition which is where all those bass heavy dubstep tunes are cut. So I whack 'Traumatic Times' on the deck and it's a pleasant enough tune, as expected all elements are tweaked to perfection. There's a playful whistle sound that crops up a couple of times that confuses me. Brian reckons it's to make you paranoid when your off your nut in a club. It's quite a simple but soulful track reminding Brian a little of Photek. Flip over for 'Woodblock' which is more energetic with its marching woodblock percussion and ravey/ techy stabs. There's an alright groove going but it borders on being slightly cheesy for me. I'm sure I'd get into it if I was at a party or something.

Traumatic Times / Woodblock

By day, LD is a cutting engineer at Transition Studios, the country’s number one mastering room for dubstep and bass music. What he doesn’t know about carving a deep groove can be written around the edge of a center label, and he applies the same audio-architectural expertise to the design and build of his own productions.

After his recent killer collaboration with Kode9 on ‘Bad’ / ‘2Bad’, LD returns in fine style with two more lean and muscular tracks, each richly percussive and aimed squarely at the dancefloor, yet each still imbued with the thoughtful melodic overtones that are fast becoming a Hyperdub calling-card.

‘Traumatic Times’ suggests Ryuichi Sakamoto trapped in South London, with a gorgeous melancholic ringing keyboard motif riding on top of a driving rhythm section and the warmest of sub-bass swells. Flipside ‘Woodblock’ is a more animated excursion, like a heightening of the senses after the a-side’s languid rolls, peppering the air with infectious synth hooks which dart across and worm around an insistant tribal rhythm.

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