James Blake - Order / Pan

Good to see that James Blake's not turned his back on his roots, still releasing on underground dubstep/bass labels after relative success recently. Here he drops a couple of heavy ones for Untold's Hemlock label. 'Order' is stripped to the bare bones throbbing bass, snare and distant atmospheric pulse with occasional 'It's a t'ing' dread vocal sample. It's a slow motion syrupy stomp with occasional cowbell and that's about it but really when the bass is this heavy it requires little else to get things vibrating on the dancefloor. Pure bass pressure for the purists! Meanwhile 'Pan' is equally, if not more deadly with the sheer weight of the bass, it's not difficult to imagine being lost in the smoke at 3AM with your chest rattling from the bass bin transmissions. Again this one is stripped back with a few percussive elements keeping the momentum. This recalls Pinch at his most pure and heavy. Am feeling both tracks on here. James Blake's stuff so far never really got me all that excited but this really is a diamond in the rough in terms of pure soundsystem heaviness, heading for the extreme SUB-LOW (remember when dubstep was being called that??) resulting in music that has a physical impact like no other.