Even with the overarching dominance of his new electro-cum-footwork alias Addison Groove, Tony Williams still has time for smooth, metallic dubstep under his original name. How old Lost Prophet/Chasing Dragons are remains unknown but irrelevant, because they feel beautifully timeless in a way that’s quickly becoming a signature of the Bristol-based Idle Hands imprint. There’s a glazed-over, aged quality to them, but something undeniably propulsive: one eye half-open towards the future in the ethereal and sublime manner that’s been driving the hardcore continuum since the early 90’s. As such, Headhunter’s tracks don’t sound much like current dubstep (whatever that sounds like), nor do they fit in with his previous output in structure or feel. Rather than focusing on the segmented “drop” structure of dubstep they prefer a sustained buildup more akin to house music.
“Lost Prophet” and “Chasing Dragons” are both lengthy dubstep-tempo workouts, charging out of the gate and maintaining an impressive forward trajectory so smoothly they barely seem to touch the ground. In fact, a few minutes into “Lost Prophet” it lifts off completely, melting midair into soaring sustained chords that seem to radiate from the track’s backdrop like bolts of gorgeous sunlight. It’s a moment that’s distractingly gorgeous, triumphant and undeniably anthemic: in short, devastating to a rave. “Chasing Dragons” plays the slightly downtrodden downer to the peaktime hedonism of “Lost Prophet,” its beat more compressed, low to the ground, skipping where its predecessor glides. It subsists on that same tapestry of gummy sustained chords, but they hover and hold the track down rather than pull it up into the blissful transcendence of “Lost Prophet.” These are two sides of a coin, different moods built from the same elements. Perhaps most impressive is how Headhunter has so perfectly infused the house influences he’s been gobbling up lately into something that still feels decidedly dubstep in a world where things that are decidedly dubstep are dangerously close to extinct.
