The artist recognized to the drum & bass world as Moleman has all the time performed issues his personal method. Releasing totally on the grassroots label Fats Tape information since he started with this moniker in 2011, Moleman has lived as much as his identify as he’s usually shirked the limelight and massive labels, preferring to do his personal A&R and work with individuals who help his imaginative and prescient. Hiw music speaks for itself, nonetheless, and he’s nonetheless managed to grow to be a family identify in liquid D&B and is a favourite on Liquicity radio, BBC Radio and 1Extra, DJ Magazine, et al.
The upcoming launch of Moleman’s new venture, a full-length LP known as Duality due out this week on July 30, isn’t any exception to his observe file of doing issues his personal method. He’s self-releasing this 13-track album, which research the 2 totally different sides of his work, therefore the identify. The primary a part of Duality is extra energetic and pop-driven, whereas the second half is introspective and ambient. Let’s not forged aspersions primarily based on that description, nonetheless: all of the tracks on Duality are nonetheless as much as Moleman’s excessive requirements of manufacturing, sound design and flowy, melodic liquid.
The opening observe on Duality, entitled “This Feeling” opens with fairly an existential pattern about notion, so although Moleman considers the second half of the album to be the extra contemplative facet, followers may discover themselves in a deep suppose even whereas they dance to the quick snares, celestial melodies and insane ameny breakdowns. The subsequent observe, “Stunning Dreamer” has the same, semi-trippy spoken phrase opener that will remind some dreampop followers of M83’s earlier work nevertheless it’s bought that 174 pitch that’s the heartbeat of any D&B head.
174 is definitely not the one tempo on Duality. Moleman attracts from his work in different genres to convey dubstep, future bass and even journey hop bits into tracks like “Take On the World” and “Photo voltaic Flare.” Each observe is distinctively his, nonetheless, with that immediately recognizable, lighter-than-air sound design and people crisp drumlines. By the top of the album, listeners can have bee taken on a journey by means of the perfect of liquid D&B and thru the thoughts of Moleman.
YEDM managed to come up with “Starlight,” a celestially-inspired observe from the second a part of Duality which incorporates a number of the quickest secondary snares ever heard juxtaposed with a classic pattern utilized in hip hop and rave music for practically 4 a long time, taken from an audio recording of an viewers member throughout a efficiency of Lyn Collins’s “Assume (About It) in 1972. It someway blends seamlessly into this 2023 liquid observe and provides it that ravey edge for which Moleman is thought.
Duality can be a examine on the numerous method liquid remains to be a really large a part of the beating coronary heart of drum & bass, pulling melody and affect from so many bygone eras and turning it into one thing lovely for the trendy ear. As one of many masters of the subgenre, Moleman shouldn’t be solely displaying the numerous sides of his personal profession however of liquid and drum & bass on the entire. Anticipate to listen to one thing from this album at each pageant and dawn set this season and into the longer term; it’s an prompt traditional.
Duality drops on July 30 and is on the market to pre-order on Bandcamp or to pre-save on Spotify.
