Anti G – Presents Kentje’sz Beatsz

The whole LP is an exercise in pushing a limited set of sounds through a number of hoops, and with that in mind, it maintains its vibe brilliantly.

The whole LP is an exercise in pushing a limited set of sounds through a number of hoops, and with that in mind, it maintains its vibe brilliantly.

http://dense.de http://planet.mu

This lad is eighteen, he lives in Delft and he takes a genre called Bubbling House and runs with it to somewhere that isn’t easily definable. The press release bumpf states that the music sounds like someone getting stabbed in space and I sort of (for once ) agree. I have heard Bubbling House whilst out whiling the night way in certain clubs in Rotterdam and The Hague, especially round 2000, but it certainly didn’t sound much like this.

This is a strange, dense and often grating record, it can drive you nuts in parts, and sometimes you can’t sit in the room whilst you’re giving it a spin: but overall it’s a great work and the product of someone with a vision. The opener, Oepss Te Hardd!, comes on as a savagely minimal rave track, replete with intensely annoying squeaks and whoops, but somehow you know it’s good, the beat is so minimal and dumb as to be utterly convincing.

Kentje’sz Beatsz is hysterical and driven: I suppose it’s the aural result of the fevered workings of a teenage mind. The tiles have lots of ! in them; THE FUCKING ERROR!!!!!!! gives you some small idea what’s going to hit you before you play the track. There are also a lot of squeaks and blurps. The whole LP is an exercise in pushing a limited set of sounds through a number of hoops, and with that in mind, it maintains its vibe brilliantly. It has an industrial feel, and has a sharp edge that helps define and cement the eclectic, polyrhythmic nature of his music. Inspiration Meets Bubbling is a tremendous cut up, literally throwing beats and rhythms around with abandon but a track that keeps its focus brilliantly.

There are quieter moments where surprising ideas come to start to form in the listener’s mind: It’s Just Fresh Hiphop, Turn the Hiphop On and Crack the Glass have a feel of Kraftwerk or early Human League too (actually a lot of this record is a strange alliance of Grime & Kraftwerk at their most glacial). Full Up is another abstract work out that has its feet in two camps; it’s a funny mix of minimal electronica and House. The most enjoyable and annoying tracks on the record is Trille Tot Je Doodvall!, and A Hype Up System, which are best described as heady, quirky insistent Caribbean Grime-pop. Mental.

Give this some time, it’s great.