Various Artists – Hyperdub 10.2
Think of Hyperdub, now think of a colour. What’d you choose? Pitch black? Murky grey? The pigment rotting leaves trapped behind a strip mall’s dumpster? While Kode9’s formidable now decade-old label has always had a reputation for innovation, sunny it ain’t. No one thinks of pastels or a breezy summer day summer day when they’re playing the latest Terror Danjah EP, and you don’t need to look far into the label’s catalogue’s to find sinister themes coursing through, with track titles like “Traumatic Times”, “Hysteria”, “Idiot”, “Madness” and “Broken Heart Collector” characterising their roster’s output.
But dig a little deeper, and one realizes that Hyperdub has never solely been about doom’n’gloom – instead, their catalogue over the last decade has been responsible for simultaneously broadening and fraying the edges of what we consider pop music. Maybe that’s part of what makes Hyperdub 10.2 so compelling: As a collection of unreleased tracks and R&B, pop, and soul-leaning moments, it catalogues the myriad times that the label has interacted with the mainstream – often transgressing, splintering, or complicating it in the process. “Signal 2012” exemplifies the label’s complicated relationship with accessible music; a cut from Inga Copeland and Dean Blunt at the peak of their creative zenith. It’s an Escher-esque, illusive take on pop – slowed down sinogrime strings accompany Copeland’s fluttering voice, which wiggles into a different shape every time you try to comprehend its form.
Burial’s “Shell of Light” is likely well-known to anyone listening to this compilation, but it remains the goose bump-inducing masterpiece it’s always been, capitalizing upon the hypnotizing repetition of its skeletal two-step pattern, switching back and forth between tense and tender, wounded and aggressive. Slowly doubling up on its vocal harmonization until the end of the track breaks for an entirely different elegy, it’s one of the most striking instances of Will Bevan transforming pop elements (in this case, the vocals from Ernie Halter’s cheesy acoustic ballad “Whisper”) into something much more emotionally potent.
Though Jesse Lanza’s falsetto can sometimes get lost in the flurry of quick-strike percussive patterns that characterize many of her tracks, “5785021” offers a placidity and space that suits her range, resulting in a ballad that sounds as if it’s echoing off the moss-covered walls of a tunnel. While Lanza obviously gathers inspiration from R&B, Cooly G’s “Obsessed” makes those influences more explicit – her sparse take on the genre looks to tracks like Monica’s “Knock Knock” thematically (the sub-genre of R&B that tackles telling stalkers you’re not interested), with emerging piano keys providing an organic counterpart to the mechanical drum machine chug of the track’s first half.
Ikonika’s “I Know (That You Are The 1)” is the first offering in the compilation that openly embraces positivity – mixing freestyle house tropes and a beat that sounds like incredibly proficient use of a hacked Atari console. But it’s Dam Funk’s unmistakable yowl overtop that cements the whole thing as a verifiable summer anthem, one that refuses to pause for breath or slow down from its breakneck funk. As far as collaborative efforts go, it’s impossible to top Morgan Zarate’s “Sticks & Stones”, which, despite touting two classic Ghostface verses, really belongs to UK songwriter Eska Mtungwazi. Her impeccable harmonies ringing out overtop tambourine shakes completely dominate the track, every syllable delivered with a confidence and range that would make Erykah Badu blush.
DVA’s “Just Vybe (Soule Power Mix)” is similarly ruled by Fatima, whose verses sound like they could be taken directly from a Southern Baptist gospel sermon in both content and delivery, while DVA accompanies with lurching organ notes. It’s interesting to note that Hyperdub 10.2 is one of the few compilations that touts an equal number of female musicians throughout without being explicitly female-focused. This shouldn’t be surprising in 2014, but tally up the gender ratio of men to women in compilations from other dance labels, and it’s unlikely you’ll find the same balance.
DJ Rashad’s Spinn & Taso accompanied “Only One” serves as an undeniably sobering moment once you reflect on how Rashad Harden’s life was tragically and suddenly cut short months ago. An integral member of the Hyperdub family, it’s hard to ignore the devastating effect of this loss. Watching Kode9 and Ikonika paying tribute to him in a recent Boiler Room memorial feels completely surreal, especially because Harden’s tracks aren’t meant for rooms hanging heavy with sadness. “Only One” is a testament to all that’s joyful and positive in his music, and it showcases Harden’s ability to take the melancholy repetition of the lines, “girl you know this love is real” only to drop the track into a pit of surging acid lines seconds later, throwing all but the most adept dancers for a loop.
That’s what Hyperdub has done impeccably well over the last decade – they keep you on your toes, keep you surprised, thrown off balance. And while there’s obviously very little here that would find its way onto Top 40 radio or a hi-NRG compilation, a bit of reflection makes one realize that not only has Kode9’s label been making pop, hip hop and soul music all these years, but they’ve been redefining its very nature.
Brendan Arnott
Tracklisting:
1. Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland – Signal 2012
2. Burial – Shell of Light
3. Jessy Lanza – 5785021
4. Cooly G – Obsessed
5. Fhloston Paradigm – Never Defeated – feat Rachel Claudio
6. DVA – Solid – feat Zaki Ibrahim
7. Ikonika – I Know (That U Are The 1) – feat Dam Funk
8. Morgan Zarate – Pusher Taker – feat Roses Gabor
9. Jessy Lanza – You and Me
10. Morgan Zarate – Sticks & Stones – feat Eska & Ghostface Killa
11. DVA – Just Vybe (Soule Power Mix) – feat Fatima
12. Terror Danjah – You Make Me Feel – feat Meleka
13. DJ Rashad – Only One – feat Spinn & Taso
14. Kode9 – Lies Lies – feat copeland