Since its inception around 2005, dubstep has been a driving force in electronic music, inspiring a myriad of offshoots and influencing the sounds of countless artists the world over. On his second album, Midnight Colour, Alan Myson aka Ital Tek shows himself to be a student of these many splinters while presenting a cohesive melding of modern bass music. Throughout its 13 tracks the sounds of deep London 2-step are prominent, but Ital Tek slows down from where he left off on his debut album, cYCLiCAL. He expands into the complex beat styles of the LA post-hip-hop scene, the bass gymnastics of Glasgow, and the 8bit sounds of modern grime and Scandinavian skwee, all the while building on the cavernous atmospheres of London bass music.
Midnight Colour opens with dubstep’s familiar low-end drops on “Neon Arc,” but Ital Tek quickly parries it against a rippling bleep melody that shove it in the direction of Starkey and Joker’s multi-pitched leads. These stretched and warped synths work their way throughout the album and manage being tightly integrated into various styles. The shuffling and oft-kilter drums of “Infinite” are straight out of the vibrant LA beat scene, coupled with tinkling fragments and molten bass punches. “Babel” is a late-night monster, the ominous and atmospheric melody cement together thick and brutal bass notes, relentless drums, and insectoid 8bit synths. The title track is could be described as the little brother to “Babel,” focusing more on the subtle but still dirty melody and dynamic drum programming. “Subgiant” clearly takes its name from the titanic low-end lurking under this slow-moving but lumbering beat workout. These ventures into colorful bass experiments and twisted melodies are closely intertwined with the current crop of Planet Mu artists like Slugabed and Kuedo.
The echoing crackles of “Talis” and “Black and White” carve out the space needed for their light keys and loping beats propelling them forward, not unlike the recent work of Scuba. Ramping up the energy, “Moment in Blue” takes the atmosphere of these tracks and churns the keys and beats into a liquid club anthem. As with “Strangelove V.I.P.” and “Moonbow,” Ital Tek shows that for all his experiments and slower tempos his range still includes frenetic, floor-friendly tracks. The album wraps up the proceeding with a languid track that absorbs the disparate sides of Ital Tek’s production and adds one more: the voice of Anneka. Over a shimmering mid-range bass and wind chamber textures, “Restless Tundra” is a worthy capstone for the album; its pairing of simple but strong beats and high, meandering synth lines feels triumphant. On the whole Midnight Colour is dynamic success — a panoramic view of bass music that exhibits all the sonic tools Myson has collected and incorporated into his sound. Progression has long been a hallmark of thoughtful composers and Midnight Colour put its author in those ranks.
