No, not Rezz, Rez. This St. Louis-based producer has only been making tracks for about three years according to his Soundcloud, but he’s already released his unique brand of chill yet heavy halftime and dubstep on UK labels like Uprise Audio, Silent Motion and Prime Audio. His first stateside EP comes from the also new Dub Sector, also based out of St. Louis.
The Resistance EP releases tomorrow, June 23, and contains four slow, grinding but eternally heavy halftime tracks of a unique style not seen yet in bass music under 150 bpm. “New World Order”, the EP’s closing track, is possibly the slowest and grindiest of all the tracks, and it is definitely halftime rather than dubstep; no debate needed. It may even be a slower tempo than halftime. This track has an oddly dystopian feel, which may be why Rez named as he did. The bass is sparse but about as low-pitched as a bassline can go while still being recognizable to the human ear.
The drums on “New World Order” are surprisngly mostly created via the very digital sounding snare/high hat combination, with a lone kick at the end of every bar. It’s interesting to hear a snare-driven track at this super-low tempo, and ostensibly this phenomenon is what gives the track it’s chill, funky flavor in the face of the low, rumbling bass and dark, metallic sampling. If that wasn’t enough surprises drums-wise, just past the halfway mark a rolling loop of amens comes in under the snares, the spread-out kicks and the evil-sounding doom bass. This is not an amen break, mind you, but a loop of amens which roll into each other and continue for almost a full minute. The track then continues on its dystpioan, darkness-slowly-eating-humanity-style path before ending with a long draw of the bass. It’s a great track with which to sit in a dark room and contemplate the emptiness of life, and that suits many bassheads just fine.
The Resistance EP drops on June 23 on Dub Sector records, and can be pre-ordered by clicking here.