Various – Pinch B2B Mumdance
On paper, Pinch and Mumdance aren’t the most likely of bedfellows, but both have undergone recent career shifts that have seen them occupying the same musical space. Last year Dubstep veteran Pinch launched the Cold Recordings imprint to concentrate on contemporary sounds emanating from the hardcore spectrum, and Mumdance has moved from releasing questionable bangers on Diplo’s Mad Decent label to making innovative grime and hardcore fusions both solo and with Logos. Pinch B2B Mumdance is a unique experiment with the mix CD format, with the duo attempting to formalise their mutual interests. As Mumdance recently told Resident Advisor, it’s an attempt to “bring together a sonic which we both feel we have been working towards for a while, albeit from very different angles”.
Twisting techno, hardcore and grime into dark new shapes; it’s an aesthetic that only a very few producers other than Pinch and Mumdance seem to share, limited to the duo themselves, the aforementioned Logos, a handful of artists that Pinch has featured on his Cold Recordings label, and individuals like Alex Coulton. Filled largely with exclusives from themselves and these like-minded figures, Pinch B2B Mumdance feels more like an album than a mix. Sometimes this works to its detriment, with transitions sometimes appearing out of nowhere; the appearance of Mumdance’s jittery grime tool “The Sprawl” next to Shed’s much straighter remix of Pinch’s “The Obsession (Possession)” is one such moment.
However, there’s something about the interplay between Mumdance’s twisted aesthetic and Pinch’s more stern-faced approach that gives the mix some much needed balance; while the 4/4 moments can sometimes be dragged down into a vacuum of bass, and overly-atmospheric textures and dialogue samples, there’s always a curveball rhythm around the corner to shake everything up. It’s clear that the duo understand that for every track like Mumdance’s “Doom” that almost induces nausea due to its trippy pitched rhythms, there needs to be at least one straight banger like Mumdance & Logos’ “Move Your Body”, whose industrial techno kickdrum, rolling snares and airhorn synths offer one of the most rush-inducing moments of the mix.
While Mumdance also described Pinch B2B Mumdance as a “scene report,” which “encapsulates what is happening at the moment,” it would be misleading to suggest that what the duo present is a concrete aesthetic that has entrenched itself across UK clubs. However, looked at – as Mumdance suggests – as “possibilities for the future”, it’s hard to disagree. At certain points, Pinch B2B Mumdance gives you the feeling of travelling in a jet plane at Mach 3, which stops abruptly and throws you around in different directions, and by the time Logos’ almost beatless “No Skyline” comes around to close the mix, you’ll feel like you’ve left Earth’s orbit, and there’s little at the moment that quite matches their blend of functional UK club mechanics and experimental thinking.
Despite UK club music being in safe hands thanks to a rising tide of contemporary grime producers and the continual innovation of the Night Slugs family, there’s always room for another perspective, and Pinch and Mumdance’s brooding sound offers something pleasingly unique, even if it’s still largely hypothetical. If other producers were to follow their lead and expand on what the duo have started, it would be no bad thing.
Scott Wilson
Tracklisting:
1. Logos – Savanna Overlord
2. Alex Coulton – Sinners
3. Pinch – Obsession (The Possession)
4. Pinch – Obsession (The Possession) (Shed remix)
5. Mumdance – The Sprawl
6. Pinch – Down
7. El-B – Buck & Bury (Ziro remix)
8. Nurve – Wrong Number
9. Mumdance – Doom
10. Mumdance & Logos – Legion (VIPinch Mix)
11. Pinch & Mumdance – Noctis
12. Asusu – Velez (A Made Up Sound Remix 2)
13. Pinch & Mumdance – Whiplash
14. Mumdance & Logos – Bagleys (Reese Tool)
15. Pinch & Mumdance – Double Barreled Turbo Mitzi
16. Mumdance & Logos – Move Your Body
17. Ipman – Ghostrunner
18. Pinch & Mumdance – Lucid Dreaming
19. Logos – No Skyline