Ramirez – AMY review

Since their emergence via numerous releases across a myriad of labels, Hype Williams have seemingly delighted in confounding and confusing all who dip into their fuzzy lo-fi world of faux myths, intrigue and ambiguity. This year has nudged them closest to the spotlight, with an album for Hippos in Tanks and a debut EP for Hyperdub – both of which perfectly encapsulate the music lover’s relationship with them. You either retain a curiosity about Hype Williams that ensures any of their new material will get checked, or the bile engulfs you and they get dismissed wholesale as the latest in a long line of jokers.

For this writer, it is most certainly the former, and amidst rumours of more material forthcoming on Kode9’s Hyperdub imprint, it’s the bands solo endeavours this year that have been perhaps the most interesting development in the ongoing Hype Williams story. Firstly, Inga Copeland slipped out a blink and you’ve already spent too long procrastinating white label twelve inch on Rush Hour entitled Trample over the summer, which can be aligned with the smudged out sounds of Not Not Fun’s resident Amazonian Estonian, Maria Minerva. And now Dean Blunt joins her on the Dutch label with this curio of a release, a one sided twelve inch supposedly fronted by an elusive singer called Ramirez which has the Hype Williams member on button pushing duties.

Repeat listens to “AMY” reveals the track to sound like the intriguing end results of a day in the studio together between Parris Mitchell and Jamal Moss. Much like both their output for Dance Mania and Mathematics respectively, “AMY” is not a track notable for its subtlety – the track is brash in the way it wastes little time launching into groove, and features some laughably risqué vocals, sung with coke addled glee by the mysterious Ramirez over the lolloping mutant disco beat. The saturated nature of the production is wholly reminiscent of Moss, sounding like it’s been rescued from years of degradation in a basement archive and then overdubbed with spiralling phasers that lend the track a wholly psychedelic edge.

Tony Poland