Killbox

Welcome to my sixth album write-up! I apologize in advance for the wall of text that is about to follow. Scroll down for a TL;DR on the LP.

Background

Outside of the Neurofunk realm, the name Killbox might not be quite as recognizable as some of the other names I've covered on this album deep dive series. However, if I tell you that Killbox is a duo that consists of scene behemoths Ed Rush and Audio, I bet a few more people are turning their heads and rushing to hear what the audio of this long player sounds like. For those who want to learn more about how this insane combination of talent came to be, or who are still absolutely confused about who I'm even talking about here, let's start with a little history lesson. Well, a rather big one actually.

Please don't murder me when I get a random detail from 1995 wrong, I had to look all of this stuff up online and I doubt the random articles I searched through covered everything.

1. Ed Rush

Let's start with Ed! Ben Settle, Ed Rush's real-life alias, is one of the pioneers of this scene we hold dear today.

1.1. The Hip-hop Kid From London

This honestly quite long story starts all the way back in 1989 (!), when the London-born-and-raised self-described hiphop kid first got in contact with the drums and the basses. He went out to the far-away lands of Oxford, where the party sound system Spiral Tribe hosted one of their very first outdoor raves, and immediately fell in love with what he heard. If we want to be nitpicky he actually heard Breakbeat Hardcore and not Drum and Bass there, but that's kind of a given, it was 1989 after all. What's important is that the chopped-up breakbeats and sick basslines had a deep effect on him. Around the same time he also started hanging out with his same-block neighbour Nico Sykes, a for-hire producer, who kickstarted his interest in the production side of things very early on. Nico wasn't quite as much of a fan of the fast syncopated rhythms yet, but through sheer perseverance Ben slowly but surely convinced him to love it too.

A few years later, in 1992 (2 years before I was born!), Ed Rush self-released a few white label 12-inch singles, including but not limited to "I Wanna Stay In The Jungle" and "Look What They've Done". Just like his early inspirations, these early few releases were very much late-period hardcore, with a few techno influences thrown in as well. He wasn't satisfied with this though. He didn't want to continue producing these forgettable (his words!) singles, he wanted to create a brand new, darker sound. So he decided to take a few-months-long hiatus so he could explore and soak up the sounds of the scene all over the country.

1.2. No Turning Back

The next year he started DJing on local pirate radio station Don FM, where he eventually met DJ Trace, with whom he promptly collaborated on a few more singles under the Soundlab alias on Lucky Spin Recordings. The real big return and thus also the big change in sound, however, came with his track Bludclot Artattack on Nico's No U-Turn Records. While the lines were always a little blurry, Bludclot Artattack marked a clear switch from Hardcore to the darker, more Drum and Bass sound. Or Dark Jungle or Jungle Techno or what the name was at the time. In any case, it was darker than anything before it. Ben's mission of "I want to hurt people with his beats" was off to an amazing start.

From the on his career was on a steady upward trajectory, early highlights including a release on the legendary Jet Star Records in 1994 and a slew of instant-classics like Guncheck and Gangsta Hardstep on No U-Turn. In 1995 he also met a certain Matt Quinn at the dubplate mastering company Music House, but that's not important yet. Another year later, in 1996, Ben continued his run of releases on legendary labels with Killimanjaro on Grooverider's Prototype and the Skylab EP on Goldie's Metalheadz. That was also the point when Rush and Trace came up with a whole new genre neologism to properly classify this new darker sound: Techstep!

Not only did Ben put out even more solo music as Hydro on Emotif Recordings that very same year, he was also very actively working together with a lot of other people. 1997 saw the release of both Torque, a collaborative effort with Trace, Nico Sykes and Fierce, and a few Moving Shadow releases as Neo-Tech, the collaborative alias with Dom & Roland. So many names.

1.3. The Virus began to spread

Speaking of collaborations, there was one that was much more than just a one-off. Obviously I'm talking about the "collaboration to end all collaborations": Ed Rush joining forces with Matt Quinn, better known as Matrix's brother and most known as Optical! As both shared the same love for the darker sounds of Drum And Bass and hung out in a lot of similar circles in the scene, it only made sense they'd eventually start producing together.

While the duo's debut in 1998, Funktion, was released on the renowned V Recordings, it didn't take long for the dynamic duo to go completely independent with their very own label: Virus Recordings. On this new outlet they were free to explore all the dark corners of the genre they might not be able to on other people's labels. This was proven quickly by the release of their double single Medicine/Punchbag, a few months later even more so by their legendary album Wormhole. I feel like I'm throwing around the word legendary a bit often here, but if anything deserves that label it's Wormhole. Not only is it still widely regarded as one of the best DnB albums of all time, it also pretty much spawned a whole subgenre: Neurofunk. More than 20 years later, the term coined by Nico Stykes is still widely in use, even after evolution after evolution throughout the decades.

After a few more classic singles like Bacteria or Sick Note and a remix for the Ram Trilogy classic Mindscan, it was already time for another album. In 2000 the devilish duo released their sophomore album The Creeps (Invisible and Deadly!), featuring the first appearance of long-time collaborator Ryme Tyme, which is also the first time the Ed Rush and Optical have worked vocals into their dark beats.

1.4. Virus? More like Fly-(to-the-)US!

At this point the Virus that is Ed Rush & Optical started going from endemic to pandemic, with early shows in Belgium and even America popping up around 2003. Did you really expect me not to make a pandemic reference when talking so much about Virus? In the same year the stylish squad went on to release album number three, The Original Doctor Shade. Around this time the gifted group became such a household name, that they've started attracting attention from outside the scene too. They got so big that in 2005 they were even featured in the Tate Gallery's "40 Artists, 40 Days" project showcasing London's most notable artists in London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympics. I choose to believe the bid was only successful because of their involvement.

After three banging Neurofunk albums Settle and Quinn decided it was time for something new. That something was a way more dancefloor-oriented rock-inspired style of Drum and Bass, with more vocals than ever. Together with Optical's brother Matrix, MC Ryme Tyme, MC Darrison and rock vocalist Louis Smith, the duo set out to turn the Ed Rush and Optical live experience on its head, by turning it into a whole live band experience! They didn't just take older songs and convert them into new band material, no no, together they created the duo's fourth album Chameleon, which the whole gang then performed across the country.

After this era of experimentation, the two genre giants returned back to their roots and started working on a sequel to the album that started it all, Wormhole! The idea: Same Wormhole universe, same dark and evil atmospheres, just updated to the modern sounds of 2009. And that's exactly what you got on the Travel The Galaxy LP! If that doesn't ring a bell yet: It's the one with Chubrub on it. The following years it got rather quiet around Ed Rush, with the only exception being the double single Crackball / Ride The Beast on the now-defunct RUN DNB in 2010. In 2014 Ed came rushing back (yeah that's the level of punnery I'm operating on here) with a huge announcement: A new label! In contrast to Virus, which was always focused on releasing quality music of already established artists, the new label Piranha Pool Recordings was more centred on giving a spotlight for up-and-coming artists. It was also a place for some new Ed Rush solo work, including one of his most well-known tunes yet, Scarabs.

This move was very soon followed by the seventh offering by Ed and Opt (as I like to call them sometimes), the No Cure LP in 2015. As you'd expect with these two, this one was also full of funky grooves and uncompromisingly dark. That is pretty much it for Ed Rush solo or Optical-related content. I could mention the world-famous rare EDTRAFIENICAL (Ed Rush, Trace, Fierce, Nico Sykes, Optical) collab from 1997, or Fortran (Ed Rush & Fierce) on Metro Recordings and 31 Recordings in 1998, or Drum Kru (Ed Rush, Bad Company, RymeTyme and Trace) in 2000, or his House experiments as Ben Dylan in 2013, but that's not why you're here. You're here for what Ed Rush has become known for after all this old stuff: Killbox! Before we talk about that we have to talk about Killbox's other half though. Introducing: Audio!

2. Audio

Audio, also known as Gareth Greenall, is a London-based Neurofunk producer. Well, that's the understatement of the century. Okay, let me back up a bit here, let's go back all the way to the start. Back to when Gareth Greenall was still all green behind the ears.

2.1. Back in the 90s

Even before Gareth became the genre giant with the most ungoogleable name ever we know and love today, he was already deeply entrenched into the DnB scene. While his first musical influences from the family side were a whole lot of Johnny Mathis, Neil Diamond, ABBA, Queen and Guns 'n' Roses, it was the random tape packs his school mates brought to the tennis court they were hanging out at that really kicked his interest in electronic music off. However even before that Audio would regularly listen to Colin Dale's Abstract Dance shows on Kiss FM, which is how he got acquainted with early Acid House and other underground electronic styles that were popular at the time. He went further and further down the rabbit hole until he eventually discovered the Jungle Sound™ in 1994, with World Dance and A.W.O.L playing a big role in that discovery process.

He was hooked. Soon after, Gareth gained his first actual rave experiences at clubs like Sterns in Worthing or The Beach Comber. This quickly escalated into a boatload of illegal and/or warehouse raving, sometimes beside a motorway, sometimes in the fields and one time even in a disused slaughterhouse, which he actually helped organise. Inspired by the likes of DJ Rockones or DJ Quantum, which are names that I definitely know, Gareth also soon got the urge to DJ himself. He actually learned to DJ by doing multiple (apparently) 6-hour sets at said warehouse raves! Funnily enough, he also first met Ed Rush through these various raves and events. He saw there was a mobile number printed on the back of an Ed Rush test press and thought, hey why not try to call him, maybe we can book him for that party above a pub in Croydon next week. Yep, that actually worked.

Around 1996 Audio realised that, while DJing is a lot of fun, he needed to produce his own music to get anywhere in this scene. With Ed Rush as his musical inspiration, he went out and bought an E-MU sampler, but due to budgetary constraints simply didn't get very far. Yet. While the first publically accessible Audio productions were still a few years away, Gareth was already starting to create some deep connections in the scene. During his time as an engineer for Alphamagic, the UK-based distribution company founded by Calvin Sheppard & William Kimber, he even worked together with DJ Wildchild! So many names that I totally know and am very knowledgable about.

2.2. Biohazard

2003 was the year it all started to come together for Audio. Not only did he and Jason Bull, who you might also know as Mackie, start releasing tune after tune on labels like Invader Recordings, Outbreak Records and G2, Mackie's own label, he also formed the supergroup Resonant Evil together with Mackie and Colin Worth, also known as Wrisk. As Resonant Evil they quickly became part of all kinds of legendary labels, from Renegade Hardware to Moving Shadow, and that was still all just in 2003! The classic Troubleshoot actually stems from this very first year of releasing music. Remember DJ Wildchild from like 50 words ago? She also collaborated with Audio the very next year, once on Zombie Recordings, Grid Recordings sister label, and once on her very own Wildstyle Recordings.

While Resonant Evil disbanded around 2005, Audio continued working on and releasing whole lot of new music on Freak Recordings, Habit Recordings and G2. In 2007 he even popped up on Teebee's Subtitles label, alongside a certain Spor. After this onslaught of singles and collaborations it was time for a bigger project. How about a debut album? In 2008 we got exactly that, Audio's debut LP To The Edge Of Reason on Tech Freak Recordings, the collaborative label of Tech Itch Recordings and Freak Recordings. His dark sound design and hard-hitting relentless energy stirred up the scene so much that even Ed Rush & Optical caught wind of it, which directly lead to Audio being signed to Virus Recordings!

2.3. The Virus begins to... No wait, I used that one already

After his debut on Virus Planet Fall / Pandorum, Audio didn't waste much time and started working on his second LP, the infamous Genesis Device, released in 2010. If he wasn't already on everyone's map before this album, he surely would be after it. With timeless Neurofunk classics like the title track Genesis Device, Jibba Jabba, Scanners and lest we forget the Neuro anthem Collisions, it was an album for the history books. It also featured one of the first appearances of Audio's dubstep side project Pixelfist with Mackie, Lorne and Stapleton MC that he started in 2009.

Gareth did not rest on his laurels for one second though. Following this huge success he continued to release single after single on labels like Gridlok's Project 51, Renegade Hardware and it's sister label Barcode Recordings, RUN DNB and Bad Company UK's Bad Taste Recordings. I've learned about so so many new labels through this review. That's not even all yet though. During this storm of releases he also kept creating new music with the Pixelfist project and then in 2012 he just dropped another album, just like that! That album was the Soulmagnet LP, which gave us such classics like Point of No Return and the legendary Headroom.

You might think that would be a good point for him to slow down a bit. You would be very wrong in that assumption. The long-running series of releases continued on labels like BTK's Dutty Audio, Forbidden Society Recordings and Black Sun Empire's Blackout Music! You know what that calls for? Right, another album! Just one year after Soulmagnet, Audio blessed us with the third album on Virus Force Of Nature. Fitting title I'd say.

2.4. Joining the RAMily

Even though he was already quite successful and content with where he was, after three albums and 4 years, Audio decided it was time to switch it up again. But how could you even ramp it up any further than Virus? Well, one possibility would be signing a contract with Andy C's mammoth label RAM Records! Hehe, get it, RAMp it up. I'm so subtle. I didn't just bring them up to make a stupid RAM pun, even though I wouldn't put that past me, that's actually what happened! Around 2014 Audio was approached by RAM, who offered him a place on their illustrious roster. As soon as they uttered the words "We don't want you to change your style one bit", Audio pulled out the pen to seal the deal.

And thus, the era of outstanding RAM releases began. Right from the get-go he trampled down the rest scene with the massive double single Heads Up / Stampede (or RAMpede, amirite), escalating to a full-on rampage with the Nil By Mouth EP a few months later. After having scrambled most of the listener's brain with this initial one-two punch of a label debut, he started working on his fourth album, Beastmode. To make the road to the album a bit more dramatically engaging, he slowly but surely built up to it, one double single at a time. After around a year of banging singles that made you want to spit out your ramen to pull out a proper bass face, he finally released the romper that was Beastmode in 2016. Or should I say RAM-per?

In 2017 another big mysterious project consumed a lot of his time, which is why solo Audio releases were put on hold after the release of the album. However, it only took two years for him to return with a whole slew of new solo material and a whole very own new label to release it on. Enter: Snake Pit Records! While originally conceptualized as an outlet for his own music, he is still open for featuring other people's music in the future.

I think it's time to finally talk about Killbox. Phew. I still got a few fun facts about Audio to throw at you, so let's get these out of the way first:

He thinks Headroom VIP needs less bass and snare is too loud, but is happy people enjoy it
He's a good cook
He likes cats
He got Drum'n'Bass tattooed on his knuckles!

So, how did these two big name pioneers end up joining forces? It all started back in the far distanced lands of 2016, when Ed Rush and Audio were booked to play a back2back set a Fabric for the Bad Company UK reunion. They had so much they decided to start a project together. That's pretty much the whole story already. Since Audio already had great experiences working with RAM, he brought the idea of the joint venture up with them and just like that, Killbox was born.

After their self-titled debut EP in 2017 smashed down every door in close vicinity, they already began the process of building up their debut album. Barely a year later, they unleashed the aptly-titled Pleasure Palace LP unto the world. Of course it was full of bangers, what did you expect? They didn't just stop there though. They pretty much never stopped working on music, of which some eventually found its way to their second album, Divine Profits! Only took me 20 paragraphs to actually talk about the new album. Unlike their first LP, this one was created in a slightly different way though. Usually Audio and Ed Rush regularly come together for a studio session to write down some new ideas and tunes, inspired by other people's new tracks they heard while gigging. Bit hard to do that when there's no shows and everyone is stuck at home though. For the first time, they simply relied on their instincts for what sounds good, without being distraced by trends or new artists coming up. Let's see how that sounds, shall we?

Resources

Track Breakdown

Congrats, you've made it to the Track Breakdown!

1. Intro

It's the intro! You probably won't hear this one in a club near you anytime soon (and not just because of lockdown), but it sets the mood for what's to come perfectly. In various interviews Killbox have confirmed that thematically this album is a shot at all the people who act holier than thou, but are in reality just greedy and focused on making money. Even if you didn't read any interviews you can still clearly hear their thematic intent in this intro though. It starts off with an incredibly thick ominous atmosphere that makes you feel like you're watching the arrival of an unknown species on Earth, a feeling that is only reinforced by the various sci-fi sounds piercing through it all soon after. The military is already on stand-by, watching the aliens' every move. This almost apocalyptic mood is intensified even further by the chanting church choirs, intermixed with a lot of creepy little whispers coming in left and right and all over the place, which reinforces the idea of the surface-level righteousness with a corrupted inner core even further.

Looks like we've got two individuals moving!

2. Beaker

Apparently the two individuals are marching right into a swamp full of croaky frogs. Like the equipment Beaker is named after, the main melody of this track sounds like something straight out of a laboratory. It also sounds a lot like a frog that got experimented on that has escaped from that very same lab. Did you know that a german word for frogs is "Kröten", which is also colloquially used as a word for money? It's all connected, I tell you.

Not only is that frog sound fun to think about, it also sounds wonderfully wonky! Especially when it's paired with a seriously banging production like it is here. I might be a little bit fixated on the frog thing at this point, but right from the start it really feels like you're stepping into a cave of a horrifying mutated amphibian here. While the water droplets are dripping down on you, you can hear the screams of those that have fallen prey to the beast in the far distance. The aforementioned wonky croaks trade barbs with an enormous bass, while the hard-hitting rolling drums keep the energy at the heighest levels. In the second round this battle of epic proportions takes a slightly different turn. The two parties still exchange some heavy blows, but the focus on the frog croaks is getting less and less over time, giving way to the drums and the bass.

All this frog talk aside, it's a banger of a track and a great way to kick off the album!

3. Cypher Pattern

On the frog-followup Cypher Pattern the duo show us how to create a banger out of a warning siren. After one of Killbox's signature grandiose intros has set the dark mood, we hear a horrific terror coming closer and closer every second. The computer-generated "Warning" of our automated alarm system confirms our fears that there's something evil approaching. After its arrival it rains down mayhem on everything in its way, leaving only destruction behind.

Seriously, those high-pitched wah synths cause some serious damage. The synths undergo quite a few transformations throughout the track, which are complemented by the ever-changing drums. First we've got some minimal metallic two-step drums, which puts the spotlight on the synths, but the more the melody slows down during the first drop, the more drum elements are added. In the second half Killbox even deliver a half-time version of the drop, while still keeping the increasingly faster drum progression. The more I think about it, the more I'm considering the possibility that the track's progression as a graph might actually look like a stock exchange Cypher Pattern. Even if it isn't, it's still a rather large tune!

4. Dab Lab

We just barely escaped the storm of the Cypher Pattern on the overground by hiding in our underground bunker, the Dab Lab. We are unsure if it's called that because it used to be a headshop or because it was a laboratory where you could learn the ancient courting ritual called "dabbing", but either way it is a great place to regroup. Story aside, this is definitely one of Killbox's more stripped-back tracks. The lack of in-your-face energy is made up for by the incredibly deep and menacing vibes though. The drop's wubs keep going and going, but everything around it changes so much it never becomes stale. The drums undergo some really interesting changes, with my favourite being the part where they form this really catchy shuffly pattern a bit later on in the drop. Not necessarily the typical style you expect from the duo, but with the same high quality production and dark atmosphere.

5. Epicentre

We were just admiring the dabbing technique in the scriptures in the Dab Lab, when suddenly the floor began to vibrate. The books came crushing down, alongside all the lab equipment and anything else that wasn't fastened or heavy enough to withstand this explosion of energy. An earthquake, with us right at the Epicentre! After the more subdued predecessor, Killbox lets out all the pent-up energy with the loudest and most massive bang imagineable. If I close my eyes while listening to this pure madness of a track, my brain is creating visuals of things like atomic bombs being dropped and tearing structures and people apart, in the most over the top fashion possible. Epicentre is truly a fitting title for this, my god. Just like a real earthquake, the aftershocks in this track aren't quite as extreme as the original shockwave hit. In other words, Killbox turn the energy levels down a bit again in the second half, where the shockwaves wobble ahead with less and less energy until the earthquake is fully over.

6. Multiply

In the midst of all the chaos, we didn't even notice that the earthquake knocked over some of the experiments. Wait, some of the dabbing experiments? Hey I'm just making this story up as I go, don't expect a coherent structure from me! Anyway, while we were busy finding survivors and cleaning up the place, the knocked-over experiments started Multiply-ing rapidly. So rapidly in fact they started overtaking the bunker. Once we got to it, it was already massive and ... began fighting back.

Back in real life, Multiply is a big deviation to the sounds we have heard so far. With its techy drums that roll even faster than the story's organisms are multiplying and its ebbing and flowing waves of incredibly large basses, this one is certainly of the most modern Neurofunk track on the album so far. It's a continuation of the currently emerging New-rofunk™ style that Audio has already played with on his latest Surveillance Music and VISION releases, with a big shot of Killbox magic mixed in. I'm already a huge fan of this modern style, but hearing Ed Rush's and Audio's spin on it is just *chefs kiss*.

7. Mutiny

We managed to fight back against the mutated organisms, but only barely. Every time we try to get some rest, we receive another setback, which seems to take its toll on the crew. With every push to regroup, the others seem to distance themselves. We give them their space for a few days while we rebuild the destroyed base. A few days later one of our top crew mates leads us to the break room to discuss the next few steps with the rest, only for them to lock the door and draw their weapons on us! It's a trap! A Mutiny!

After the previous excursion into the more techy soundscapes, we now return to some proper wubbage. Even though Admiral Ackbar warns us just in time with his instant-classic vocal sample, the absolutely disgustang wobbles do surprise a little on the first listen, in a good way. With the wobbles wobbling on and on over the course of most of the track, it is upon the drums and other horror-esque elements to keep things fresh, something that Killbox of course manages very well. Relatively simple but effective.

8. Nova

We might have thought we had survived the worst, but that mutiny was only the beginning of the end for our main crew. We managed to find shelter in the woods, but the longer we stayed the more problems we had with King Cobras. As soon as we had found a way to fight them off safely, that nearby star exploded into a huge Nova whose shockwaves blasted our improvised shelter to pieces. I have a feeling this story won't end well.

Like the title implies, this one is a gigantic tune. It is the answer to the question "What if Foghorn but in Neuro?". The focus is 101% on the massive bass. Unlike the Jump Up equivalent, Nova has way more interesting drumwork and more variations to it though. It might start off with a very minimal metallic snare and not much else, but as is tradition in Killbox tunes, the drums are ever-changing. Even the foghorn is switched up towards the end of both drops, with a really catchy call-and-response between it and an equally heavily distorted, but way less bassy little melody. Unapologetically the biggest banger so far.

9. Reverent

After our main crew has experienced so many blow-backs, the only way we see that would keep us from going insane through all this madness is to become reverent. We remember someone from the mutiny crew mentioning a church on the other side of the plains, they could probably help us. Traversing the plains would usually not cross our minds at all as its full of unknown dangers, but we don't really have any other choice.

After an intro with quite the uniquely dystopian sounding atmosphere, Killbox once again straight-up smashes our heads in. It might have a similarly heavy distorted bass like Nova, but it's utilized in a completely different way here. Instead of a few long, drawn-out notes, we are hit with a quick succession of staccato bass stabs, seemingly synchronized to the quick and breaky drums. Very soon this is switched up with a call and response with a secondary, lower-pitched grinding melody, which makes my brain tingle all over the place. Not just a fun track atmospherically, but also a banger and a half.

10. Rodan

Crossing the plains was every bit as tiresome as we had feared, but the hope for salvation was still there. Around half-way across we made halt in a little underground cave we found, where we came across an egg of sorts. Not only was it slimy as hell, it was also quite large. We didn't think much of it, as we simply needed rest. Then the mother came home. Upon seeing us, the massive reptile with a wingspan of multiples meters let out an earth-shattering cry, which was our cue to leave. Adrenaline kicked in, allowing us to use every last bit of our energy to sprint as far as we could, with Rodan, our nickname for the mother, right behind us for most of the time.

We really are in the bangers only part of the album aren't we? With Rodan Killbox deliver yet another enormously weighty track, which could be considered another entry in the Neurofunk-Foghorn series, with an intro that oozes story-telling. However if you look a little beneath the BRRR of it all, you can find some neat little sound design tricks in there too. It's nothing new that the drums are being switched up quite a lot, but I just really love how the drums switch between full-speed 16th notes during the foghorn bit and minimal two-step during the bit that sounds like the track is being slowed down and sped up again. Makes for a really fun and unique flow in my opinion.

11. Yard Stick

We've done it, we reached the church! The reverend welcomes us and invites us to one of the introductory ceremonies. The sermon is going in a direction we are not super sure about, but after all this hardship we thought, hey, let's see where this is going before we judge it too hard. After a few more questionable lessons the reverend was trying to teach, one of us spoke up. They really shouldn't have done that. Immediately the reverend called his servants on him, who beat him to a pulp with their Yard Sticks. Out of fear of retribution we silently watched. Where else would we even go from here? This was our last hope.

On Yard Stick Killbox show us yet another side of their production. Earlier on we had their take on the newschool techy Neurofunk, well, this feels like their take on oldschool Raggae-inspired DnB. Obviously it is still a heavy Neurofunk track, it's still Killbox after all, but they fused so many classic Raggae Jump Up vocal samples into this that it feels like a completely different style. It's also way steppier than most of their other tracks on this album, if that makes sense. That ratatatat switchup in the latter half of both drops is my highlight, it just hits differently.

12. Transistor (ft. Forbidden Society)

You know what? I'll just leave the story on that depressing note, hah! It's probably not even close to what the two had in mind when creating it anyway, who knows. But isn't that also a mark of quality for the album that it can spark many equally-dark but essentially different interpretations of it?

Last but definitely not least we've got the only collaboration on the album, with none other than Forbidden Society! As such it is also the most different sounding track on the album. Instead of filthy neuro rhythms, we've got the deepest of the deep wobble vibes going on. The kicks and the bass are so weighty and distorted that it's close to sounding like it's clipping, on my normal headphones. I can imagine this one tearing more than one soundsystem apart.

Conclusion

What an album! Full of fun auditory story-telling, switchups that always keep things fresh, and bass that makes you pull all kinds of faces, Audio and Ed Rush effortlessly show us that even after 20+ years in the scene they aren't even close to stopping. Sometimes heavy, other times deep, but always incredibly well produced and banging.

My favourites are probably Multiply, because I just love that New-rofunk style, especially if it's this well produced, and either Rodan or Nova, both due to their sheer ridiculousness.