After the recent release of Bok Bok’s Southside EP, the Night Slugs team are back putting out a follow up EP of Magic Drops by South London producer, Jam City. Waterworx continues in the ‘grime influenced house’ which Jam’s best known for, whilst bringing something completely new to the table. The tightly-coiled EP is immersed in unglued synths, layered over grimey bass tones. The opening track, Aqua Box’s punchy 4×4-driven beat is the perfect skeleton to the track. Its nail-biting build-up uses woozy subs and generous hats before unleashing the thick bass tones and sirens. The opening to typical UK funky track, Countless, uses manipulated vocal samples – one side of a ‘bratty’ phone conversation – to create a slow build up, backed with Jam City beats and synths. The third in the release, Island, which has been passed about as a dubplate for a number of years now, finally gets its release. For me, this is the highpoint of the EP. The gunshot-like beats and shakes over droning bass tones make the perfect centrepiece to the release. Fourth track, and another I’ve heard being played a lot recently, is Barely A Trak. Carefully placed claps over a skeletal 808 beat with those Jam City repetitive vocals we know so well, is just the build-up. Midway, the track begins to play in reverse – I’ve read that this could be an ode to the late Ron Hardy – with a perfect droning synth. That track was moulded for the club. The EP closes with the beautiful Waterfalls, a very early house-influenced track which loops piano over more pulsing grime.
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