J:kenzo

Ruffhouse / Therapy J:kenzo

Over the past eighteen months there's been a general dissolving of restrictions within the scene surrounding dubstep, the focus squarely on those regions where several different genres collide and mix with one another. But with a growing number of producers deserting the spacious, sub-heavy 140bpm template for the allure of slower speeds and house-influenced grooves, it's been getting harder to find heavy, inventive beats that operate at typical dubstep tempo. *Jamie Fairbrass, aka J: Kenzo, is an exception to that rule. His tracks fall firmly within the Loefah school of dubstep minimalism - the view that less, if wielded properly, can certainly be more - an approach which has seen his tracks become staples in scene figurehead Youngsta's DJ sets and Rinse FM shows. He made his Tempa debut earlier this year with the cinematic, fire-and-brimstone halfstep of 'The Roteks' and 'Protected' (Tempa 056), and this follow-up takes a similar approach but strips his music to the absolute bare essentials. What remains is little other than sparse, skeletal percussion, the grind of bass and tightly wound, elastic energy. *Lead track 'Ruffhouse', features a detached vocal from Rod Azlan, coiled and primed for attack, its power derived almost entirely from restraint. Short moments of silence within the track ratchet up the tension to breaking point, before huge, yawning expanses of sub-bass are allowed to take control again. On the flip, 'Therapy' releases all that pent-up energy. Carrying itself with a little more swagger, its skittish percussion is marked by traces of dub-techno and sonar echo trails that bound around the mix. *Though the number of producers making vital-sounding dubstep may have slimmed, both tracks offer evidence that there's still a great deal of power within the genre, locked away and just waiting to be tapped.