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Image via Crazylegs/Brendan Bennett
Daily Discovery is a feature that will highlight a new or recently discovered artist who we’re excited about. See the rest of our Daily Discoveries here.
I won’t front: watching America finally coming around to the UK grime sound tickles me. Not because I thought it’d happen it back in 2013, or even getting to see the UK scene squadding up for Kanye West’s “All Day” performance at the Brit Awards earlier this year. It’s the fact that there has been a crop of producers over the last few years that have been making waves on the instrumental grime tip, pushing boundaries and expanding horizons without the need for MCs.
It feels like much of what America is latching onto is the personalities, which have always been there: the Skeptas and Tempa Ts and Stormzys of the grime world are no doubt the face, but they all need beats to rock to… right? And a crew like ISLAND, who dropped their magnificent, genre-spanning NOKIA EP via Crazylegs this week, is a great example of what the world should be paying more attention to… as well as what could help shape the future, well beyond the narrow confines of grime.
Crazylegs is a seven-year-old imprint out of Bristol that’s helping keep electronic music interesting by refusing any idea of genre bpundaries. Their roster already included future thinkers like Murlo, Gage, TRC, and more, but the story of the Welsh duo ISLAND is a bit different. They dropped a head-turning debut mixtape back in September, but have actually been cultivating their sound for years… we’re talking NOKIA being worked on over a three year period. The result is invigorating.
So much of the UK dance music scene has been about taking influences from around the world and turning them into magic. You can hear razor-sharp vocal cuts (which was a staple of Todd Edwards’ garage production) in tracks like “Viola,” while tracks like “J THEME” are built on more simple, immediately catchy melodies that are then thrust into the darkness.
There’s a cohesive vibe throughout the six-track release that Crazylegs label head Andy Musgrave speaks on; from the looks of it, the imprint really took their time with this release (their 10th overall, and the second of 2015). That dedication highlights how invested in ISLAND Crazylegs is, as well as how important releases like this are for the future of both this imprint and scene. Andy tells us:
NOKIA feels like a real milestone release for us in a lot of ways – first time we’ve really tailored the format to the music rather than just going down the standard vinyl & digital path, first time i’ve fully passed control of the visuals over to someone else as well (in this case the more-than-capable Brendan Bennett, long time ISLAND collaborator).
Working with Rob and J has been a real learning experience for me personally as well, they come at music with absolute freedom, they’re totally unaffected by music industry norms and it’s so refreshing, inspiring even. I guess at first I felt like they needed some moulding before we could release their shit but in the end I felt the opposite way – like actually *everyone* should aspire to be as raw and fearless as them.
As a special treat for today’s Daily Discovery, ISLAND went in the mix (tracklist here), dropping NOKIA tracks like “E S Q” and “AY,” as well as some unreleased bits of their own alongside material from Deadboy, Percy, dj J, and many others. Soak into that, and be sure to check the full NOKIA EP below. And as per usual, if you dig anything you’re hearing, be sure to cop NOKIA; Crazylegs took the time out to actually give it some dope artwork, and even packaged it in a beautiful, limited-edition CD release. Well worth the expense, trust we.
