1991 is probably the most talked about new artist in drum and bass of the last few months stateside, but the waves he’s been making in the UK and Europe haven’t been rolling for much longer. He emerged with the huge, grindy roller “Witchdoctor” in January 2016, and almost immediately gained support from heavy hitters like Sub Focus and Wilkinson, not to mention remixing Chase & Status’s “Spoken Word.” Each track 1991 has put out since he emerged has been gobbled up by the drum and bass community. Now having just returned to the UK from a U.S. tour, 1991 is once again releasing something completely different with his halftime/dubstep track, “Mayk Yu Myne.”
The thing that’s so exciting about 1991 is that he’s completely unpredictable. In the short time he’s been releasing, he’s run the gamut of drum and bass from jump up to neuro to liquid and back again, and now incorporating halftime with “Mayk Yu Mine,” it’s anyone’s guess where he’ll go next. Where he’s gone in this case is to a halftime/dubstep combo beat with an R&B twist which, in 1991’s crazy world, somehow equals a liquid halftime track. This is not brostep or popstep; no Borgore here. It’s barely even fair to call it liquid halftime, because with this track 1991 has effectively come up with something that falls into none of these categories.
Despite being a largely vocal track, “Mayk Yu Myne” is built like an EDM track rather than a pop track, which is to say the vocals are cut up and split and re-arranged to fit the beats and light, almost fluffy synths rather than the music following a verse-chrous-verse pop song structure. Said beats and synths work together in a strange way They don’t necessarily balance each other out as often happens in dubstep or even drum and bass with a lighter synth and vocal being countered by heavier drum tracks and basslines, but rather all elements here are light and melodic.
The way “Mayk Yu Myne” is made is why the track could technically be classed as a liquid halftime tune, but when listening to 1991 it’s best to just let him take the wheel and not worry about style. As soon as the bass music world thinks they have him pinned down he’ll likely surprise us all once again anyway, so it’s best to just enjoy these surprises he keeps dishing out. With a Camo & Krooked remix coming up on the RAM 25 album as well as a collaboration in the works with Wilkinson, those surprises are likely to be big.
1991’s “Mayk Yu Myne” is self-released and will be available tomorrow, November 17. For buy links, click here.
