Reviews
Starkey
It’s rare that I come to an album with so little knowledge of its genesis. My first thought on seeing Starkey’s name was, rather worryingly, that I’d have to endure the electronic musings of everyone’s favourite ill-tempered historian David Starkey. Fortunately, we’re dealing with a very different creature. This Starkey, or PJ Gessinger to his parents, is concerned instead with the futuristic. ‘Space Traitor Vol. 2′ is both an exploration of and beyond the current bass scene as well as a bullish call to arms.
This album comprises of six vastly different tracks united by their newness, as well as a selection of remixes from artists whose inclusion marks them as being at the forefront of Starkey’s march into sonic territories unexplored. Opener ‘Lost In Space’ sees Starkey populate that now familiar ethereal, astral creation until it’s morphed into something entirely alien. First his own forlorn, obscured vocals grow in urgency until they’re joined by the spiky percussion and waves of wobbly bass that act as a bed for guest vocalist Charlie XCX and her unique brand of robotised pop swagger; the track’s conclusion is a far cry from its languid beginnings.
Starkey revels in creating the dislocating and unexpected; an idea made abundantly clear on ‘Cockroaches’ where he laments those “staying in that simple box, regurgitate the same loop over”. Starkey’s work is unmistakably refreshing and innovative, but even he still leans on the past. Largely resisting the tactile, sparse minimalism that’s so prevalent at the moment, Starkey evokes the brazen, bullying bass lines of old. Carefully chosen elements of that seemingly played out dubstep sound begin to look both big and clever under Starkey’s guidance. ‘Sunlight’ and ‘Street Rockers’ are bass heavy, percussion rich and unapologetic. They may not elicit the same critical response as some of his ‘quieter’ peers, but these creations can’t help but draw a smile. The stark contrast of the vocals that briefly animate ‘Sunshine’ in the fleeting absence of the unsophisticated bass is brilliantly indicative of this sense of fun.
Despite having reanimated a musical cadaver, Starkey’s far from finished. The final three original pieces see the Philly beat maker reign in the BPMs with nods to lolloping hip-hop on the grimey ‘Bricks’, and classical music with the strings on the eerily minimal ‘Craters’ before a spoken word interlude (naturally) introduces a host of remixes. Whilst ‘Space Traitor Vol. 2′ represents a nice change of pace from the current bass music scene, it’s far from perfect. It’s perhaps a consequence of trying to say too much, but the tracks hang together loosely. Meaning we have a collection of refreshing oddities rather than a coherent attack on the status quo our exuberant producer has grown weary of.
Words: Joseph Clarke Knowles
The ‘Space Traitor Vol. 2′ EP is out now on Civil Music.
