THISTROY EP
(MASHIT)
Given the prevalence of video game sounds in the work of fringe-dubstep producers like Joker, Gemmy and Zomby, as well as the link grime holds with the medium through both style and software, Cardopusher – aka Venezuelan producer Luis Garban – seems well overdue for some praise. In the past six months he’s contributed to twelves on both Hyperdub and True Tiger, released the excellent Mutant Dubstep Vol 2 and ‘Milk Thistle’/'Double Dragon’ singles on Spectraliquid and Lo Dubs, and his debut album, Unity Means Power, on Japanese label Murder Channel.
His latest release, ThisTroy, is a digital EP split between him and fellow Venezuelan Pacheko. It’s actually Pacheko’s tracks that stand out here – hazy, bouncy dubstep tunes that are remarkable in the way they take dubstep standards and displace them – ‘Hielo Seco’ (Remix) has all the elements of a Rusko track; Jamaican vocal sample, siren, Transformer whirs and mid-range crank, but none of it’s up front; they seem to circle each other like some on-going space-age duel that’s more interesting than the sum of its parts. ‘Green Bull’ (Remix) starts off like a Peverelist tune, but laser snyths get fired across its bow ’til they’ve criss-crossed into a less spacious, more Mega Man portrayal of RSD’s ‘Accepted’. ‘Pasta De Coca’ is his best contribution to the EP, breaking up the phazer-step with ‘ardkore breakdowns and staccato, ‘I Really Mean It’-style hook-ends. I think there’s an actual NES Mega Man sample towards the end; games that are still maybe unparalled in the way they stretched 8-bit sounds into something emotive.
Cardopusher’s ‘Twins’ is more dub and less step than Pacheko’s tracks, chugging a straight path rather than darting Zig-Zags, but the way it patiently ascends and gains in urgency without making the feeling explicit shows a real top boy producer at work. ‘Lightning Resister”s a fucking trip; starting off sounding like more RSD in space (you wonder if Cardopusher’s been studying Smith’s technique, and why not – there were few better producers in any genre last year), and then turns into a battle between two sets of blatant, battering synths. The only disappointment here is ‘Homeless’, the superior Quarta 330 remix of which is already out on Hyperdub.
So Pacheko wins this round, but he also had the element of surprise. If he keeps producing material of this colour and quality then his stock will soon reach that of Cardopusher, who already should be treated as one of the best producers around.
Rating: 7.5 / Tom Lea