Available on: PTN 12″

Some tracks just deserve to be anthems. Like Fis-T’s ‘Night Hunter’, which was released on the same day and also achieved anthem status in the UK, Ben ‘Breach’ Westbeech’s ‘Fatherless’ starts with an almost comically ominous intro, larger-than-life flutes and distant claps ushering in one of the hardest tribal drum beats of the year. I remember seeing Jackmaster play it at Sonar, and watching the techno heads in the crowd (they were the ones who weren’t from Glasgow or London, basically) go spare to it with that slightly joyous “what the fuck?” expression in their eyes.

That’s the beauty of ‘Fatherless’ – in one sense it’s dead simple, a long ominous intro and a drop that’s not much more than drums and flutes, but there’s something deep in that undead lurch that makes it completely unlike the rest of the drum-driven tribal house about right now. And even better, the quality doesn’t drop once on this three-track single – Doc Daneeka’s remix speeds things up while adding some seriously heavy subs, while Breach own’s ‘Man Up’ will probably end up one of the year’s most unfairly neglected B-sides.

Tom Lea