Tuesday 3 December 2013

Boofy - Nank EP (Tumble Audio)

Person 1: “Boofy's really been on a roll recently”
Person 2: “Since when?”
Person 1: “Yeah”

Nottingham label Tumble Audio have had an excellent year. Receiving heavy support across all platforms from a host of DJs (not least Marcus Nasty, Brackles, Slackk and Madam X) they've been steadily making a name as a reliable source of quality club orientated bass music. For 006 they've enlisted Boofy who himself has been having a great few months; Since When was released on Kahn and Neek's Bandulu Records and he's started his own label with collaborator Lemzly Dale. Their 12” was released to virtually universal acclaim. Thus there were high hopes when we first got wind that he had turned his mind to his first solo grime EP...

The title track, Nank, has all the hard-hitting brilliance we've come to expect from Boofy. Hi-hats skitter, claps punch on and off beat indiscriminately and a cut up bass provides the lead. Plenty of sub-bass movement reminds us of his dubstep background while roaming square waves float in and out of the general soundscape. Underneath it all, though, lies a terrifying sense of menace contributed to by the sparse arrangement, the violent samples and the relentlessness of the drum programming.

The other Boofy production on the EP is the aptly titled Warzone, perhaps best described as Nank's hyperactive younger cousin. The riddim switches up not every 8 bars but every 4. Once again faint rumblings from the sub-woofer testify that this music built for and best enjoyed in dark club rooms with big rigs. Intricate rhythms are strung together with ease as Boofy manages once more to make a complex arrangement sound spacious.

Remixes are provided by fellow Bristolian grime artist Hi5ghost and funky producer Nativ. Hi5ghost's remix of Nank makes explicit all of the violent undertones present in the original with an 8 bar remix. Tough square bass stabs are punctuated forcefully by a kick-snare combo that would wreak all sorts of havoc in the club. Nativ's Nank is a UK Funky belter that is as rude as it is infectiously danceable. Dark and sinister, the track builds and builds to a second drop will have punters clambering over each other to reload it.

In short, Boofy (and Tumble Audio!) have done it again.



TUM006 is out now


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