Keysound label heads Dusk & Blackdown are set to release their first 12" of new music for ages – since 2008’s Margins Music album, in fact – through their own label imminently. As well as featuring Blackdown’s remix of that album’s track ‘Focus’, it also features a pair of other tracks from the duo, and an opening track ‘High Road’ that sounds an awful lot like Burial. You can stream all four tracks via FACT here.
In fact, we’re pretty sure it is Burial: as one of the foremost documenters of the nascent dubstep scene during last decade, Blackdown – aka Martin Clark – was one of the few people to ever interview the elusive producer, and also released an early 12" on Keysound featuring a Burial remix of Blackdown track ‘Crackle Blues’. This one features all of Burial’s hallmarks – skippy drums, found percussion and microscopic slivers of vocal – though its stripped back sound and appearance on Keysound suggest that this one might be a few years old. No more’s being said at the moment, but either way it’s a lovely sounding little creature.
The other three tracks on the 12" are no slouch either, especially Blackdown’s towering ‘Focus’ remix, which sets dramatic grime-referencing strings above skippy electronic garage percussion. Its low-key closing track is lovely too, its eski clicks and disembodied vocals bringing to mind Wiley’s beatless Devil Mixes, or recent eski-recalling material from Keysound signing Logos.
