Reviews

Rustie

A Rustie long player was always going to be an intriguing beast. His supreme consistency with EPs and remixes has undoubtedly caused steady murmurings and covered a multitude of EDM platforms. His evolution from ‘Jagz the Smack’ to ‘Sunburst’ results in the glass swords just about staying intact.

It may sound slightly crass to suggest that ‘Glass Swords’ is a full-circle intricate patchwork of the influences Russell Whyte has harnessed during his career of beat-making. Rather, he’s taken all the elements as different colours and thrown them onto a blank canvas. Dance-orientated synths, grime style melodies, chopped up chipmunk vocals and swirling riffs are underpinned by a variety of beat patterns.

‘All Nite’ and ‘Ultra Thizz’ are made for the chunkiest of sound systems. The latter’s clap breakdown crashes into euphoria and the grittiest of bass lines. ‘All Nite”s anthemic ‘sextures’ are reminiscent of Baywatch, ’80s dystopian films and oddly, Jean Michel Jarre. ‘City Star’ goes from a wistful country lifestyle in ancient Japan to an estate in East London – dreamy pan pipes are hijacked by a belligerent grime finale.

They all pop, bounce and rumble along. But he’s always had that ability to produce bullfrog like crowd reactions from his production. Never to accuse Rustie of being so one dimensional however – there are, in fact, sweet melodies galore here. What he has achieved is a wrapping up of candy-coated hooks, beefed up with vocal samples and doused with brazen synths and bum-shaking drums.

‘Glass Swords’ seems to tread a fine line between something akin to spaghetti junction (beautiful, manageable chaos) and something akin to a bowl of spaghetti (an unmanageable mess). ‘Crystal Echo’ is perhaps where his desire to cook his crafty ingredients together in the pot turns into the end of a destruction derby. ‘Death Mountain’ sounds like it could be the theme tune for a new generation of Pokemon. ‘Globes’ could have been another intro; a tune that always feels like it’s about to start but never does. Maybe that’s the point however; the trigger finger is never far away from the urge to skip to ‘Ultra Thizz’.

On the whole ‘Glass Swords’ is a masterpiece of electronic evolution. So many images are conjured. One minute you think he could write a sequel to Bladerunner or maybe Tango and Cash, the next you feel like playing Zelda before bringing the club scene into your house and acting loopy. And that is essentially the reason why Rustie’s smorgasbord of style just about manages to work so well.

Words: Chris McShee

‘Glass Swords’ is out October 10th on Warp.