Russian bad-boy Enei has launched himself to the forefront of the drum and bass scene over the past couple of years, going from a relatively underground lad from St. Petersburg, to Critical’s award-winning main-man.
Having released his debut album ‘Machines’ last year, he cemented his place as one of the genre’s big guns, and lived up to the ‘Best Newcomer Producer’ accolade he picked up the year previous. Now, after a short break from the studio (and touring across Europe), he’s returned with the brand new ‘Liberation’ EP - and it’s full of the crisp production that’s been curing ravers’ erectile dysfunction since his first release back in 2007.
Kicking off with it’s title track, a tune he created alongside Critical’s new boy Emperor - or, as I like to call him, baby Enei - the EP instantly shows you it means business; I’d not be surprised if your ears are literally too physically hurt to continue listening in the same sitting. After producing ‘Liberation’, you can imagine the pair sitting in the studio grinning like the evil muthas they are - in fact, I found a picture of them in the studio post-mixdown, check it on the right.
Continuing in his trademark dark and dangerous style, Enei delivers more aural-rape with ‘Circles’, featuring vocalist Sam Wills (who’s been cropping up a lot recently - we love his work on Alix Perez’s new album!). It’s an eery steppa with standard Enei bassweight, and probably my favourite on the EP. It’s between that and digital-only track ‘The Bonebreaker’ - a seriously nasty roller full of 808-like bass stabs, amens, and puppy-dog’s tails.
Showing off his eclectic talent, he’s also put together a 130-ish bpm track ('Headtop') with Manchester’s multi-talented Chimpo, who lays down some fire on top of a heavyweight body-mover... Imagine dubstep on heroin, with your dealer spitting over it. Also a little different from Enei is ‘Mosquito’, an old-skool head-nodder which definitely packs a bite, this time back at our beloved 170bpm. Looks like he managed to kick his dubstep heroin addiction!
You can check out previews of each track below, as well as the brand new video for 'Headtop'!, below - the full EP hits shelves cia Critical on June 24th later this month, but you can pre-order it here. If you like it, support the artist and buy it!
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