Twenty years after the release of the genre-defining Tortured on Tempa, Coki breezes through this span of time with a snap of his fingers. With impeccable style, of course, complete with the gun finger. For Dean Harris’s approach has scarcely changed: dubstep performing a balancing act between raw energy, power-amp control and an acoustic stress test.
As a member of a well-behaved late-capitalist society, however, one is entitled to take offence at the tracks’ anarchic repetitiveness: on the new EP, two bars are sold to you as an entire song. Whichever cue is played, the same high-pitched circular saw clatters through your ear canal. Even an intro is a necessary evil. On Weh Nah Business, this two-bar logic seems more appropriate, as MC Durrty Goodz’s monomodular framework is enriched with more detail. Humanoidz may be no less repetitive, but it feeds its rhythm with powerful subs and a dynamic 8-bit polish reminiscent of Silkie’s jazz-inspired productions. Yet here, too, it remains more effect than substance. This is peak-time air-venting: tinny, but at least polished to a high shine. A satisfying variation on high-intensity minimalism, in which everything is neatly and horizontally arranged.
The spectacle lies in the moment, not in its development. Quarter-minute spectacles with monotonous flavour: consistency to the point of rigidity. After all, Coki was already spinning these loops two decades ago.
Red Rocks
