QUARTZ - Lucid EP

Wild post-d&b from Cardiff music producer Quartz, whose music speaks for itself: in Elliot Garvey, we find an artist rightly hesitant to involve himself in the gaudy blare of online releasing. What is lost in the way of covetous imitativeness, which goes all too commonly with the territory of attempting to maintain an online presence, is made up for with a raw, unversed and entirely original sound, which builds on the tempos and harshnesses of drum & bass while otherwise upending its banalities. 'Russian Roulette' and 'Lucid' hardly care to qualify as d&b tracks proper, more than they do to simply compel the raver to shake uncontrollably, with their gatling percs and no-man's textures. 'Do It', meanwhile, contrasts the A-side's intuit-iators with an intelligent chopper-upper, working rattling and languid voices around a mercenary mix. This is the exception; 'Runtime' returns to the primeval sixteenths and flareup Reese textures that define this wicked EP.

1. Russian Roulette
2. Lucid
1. Do It
2. Runtime