Mako – A Break From Ritual
I can’t bear the practice of only releasing brief clips for track, though I know that it’s a repsonse to stream ripping. So, I tend not to bother to feature such things on this blog. But for Mako’s exemplary drum and bass I’m prepared to make an exception.
A Break From Ritual abandons Mako’s usual approach of scalpel drum and bass, in favour of something more direct. This is a headlong roll of drums and adrenalin before reining back into something more dreamy. Stirring stuff.
What A Little Moonlight Can Do is similarly headstrong but underpinned by washes of synth. Even the use of the Billie Holiday sample feels natural.
Blurb: Mako’s “A Break From Ritual” is a heavy-footed drum rush that has no confusion about its namesake. Apaches, Amens and Think breaks clatter seamlessly overtop a crushing two-step kick/snare darkly worshipping Photek’s classic MODUS OPERANDI track “Smoke Rings.” Heavier and unshy about his equally informed nods to noughties neurofunk, Mako does not mean to disappoint a single dance-floor with this one. Borrowing a line from Billie Holiday, the homage continues as Mako’s “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” builds its dusky rhythm section from layered sixteenths, loads of chunky 1-2-3 percussion, and long, long reverb tails. Some of the A-side’s blue-chord high-passed pad sounds return, for a brief moment, taking us back to a smoke-filled barroom in the the 1930s—at least as far back as drum & bass can go. Don’t miss it.
Release/catalogue number: WARM027
Release date: Dec 2, 2013
ISRC: US-RT8-13-00072
