Bristol’s producer of dubstep/R&B/grime hybrids Guy Middleton, aka Guido, has a new single out now digitally, and with vinyl on the way. It’s entitled ‘Flow’ and features vocals from Jay Wilcox – you can watch the video above.
Around the time that Middleton started releasing music, all eyes were on him and friends/contemporaries Joker and Gemmy; with a raft of excellent early singles from the trio, hopes were high for the next step. Since then, though, it’s all proved something of a damp squib. Only Middleton made good on his early promise, with 2010’s still delightful Anidea album reimagining grime as Bristolian electro-funk and R&B. With the hype machine’s eyes long since averted elsewhere, he’s been left free to carry on plumbing that (very fruitful) space, via a great first single ‘Micro X’ on his own label States Of Joy.
‘Flow’, backed with ‘Africa’, is the next release on that label. They represent business as usual in one sense – there’s little here in terms of sound palette and mood that Anidea hasn’t already explored. However, they’re some of the most intuitive and fluid tracks he’s crafted to date. ‘Africa’ is particularly good – its limpid pools flow through several distinct forms over five minutes: grimey lead lines; choruses of watery marimbas like rain patter on the track’s surface; and finally a chorus of hummed voices.
