His first solo EP on the label, this is the sound of Bok Bok reconnecting with his first true love – grime production. The “Southside EP” is a manifesto of a release that sets out BB’s vision of grime instrumentals as geometric, modular techno trax.
Exalted bells welcome you to the Southside before the “Charisma Theme” comes crashing into a drop of jackin 808 drums and call-and-response acid lines. “Hyperpass” unfolds with a thunderstorm sequence, as a warped vocal delivers a core mantra: “trax gotta get made”. Raw and cavernous, it’s built to dominate the darkest warehouses.
“Reminder” is the most direct cut of the batch, an uncompromising 8-bar number featuring a sublow tone that trades places with a row of jackhammer pulses, framed by tuff 909s to fully work you out.
“Silo Pass” is Bok Bok’s ode to his beloved Dumpvalve grime sound of the early 2000s, reconstructed for 2011 as a chromed-up squarewave floorfiller, complete with a gleaming arpeggiator sequence, birdsong, clattering rimshots and soaring, fluoro chords.
Finally, the bonus track “Look” flips the skeleton of BB’s “IRL” remix into a ominous rhythm track.
