Untold – Stereo Freeze review

R&S has been in resurgent form in 2010, releasing crucial output from James Blake, Pariah, Space Dimension Controller and Model 500. Untold, equally, is no stranger to hype. While he’s not busy running his own Hemlock imprint, he’s lapping up critical and fan-boy praise for remixes as well as original tunes for the likes of Hessle, Soul Jazz, and Hotflush. This EP is the culmination of both their powers and the results are fantastic.

While Untold is lumped into the dubstep genre, his sound has always been hard to pin down. His tunes always exist with a distinct feeling of darkness, augmented by slams of percussion and healthy servings of bass. “Stereo Freeze” starts off with gut-busting subs and heavy breaths and maintains a relentless pace, locking into a groove reminiscent of Egyptian Lover or Cybotron, with snappy snares and toms similar to Ramadanman’s “Work Them”. The track might be breaking new ground for Untold but it’s a natural progression, building on everything that has made him so excellent thus far.

The flipside “Mass Dreams Of The Future” doesn’t start off as dark and brooding as its brother, instead teasing the listener with some plucky and dreamy synths before dropping into a deep bass groove. When it does drop it quickly shifts back to an expanded version of its intro, playing back and forth with the elements and the groove. It’s a constant shift between light and dark, as if London was a city located between Detroit and Chicago and the musical scenes all converged. Once again R&S and Untold live up to their hype and praise and together released one of the most forward thinking EPs of the autumn.

Markus Garcia