Proper darkside pressure from Pessimist, invoking the technoid spirits of Dom & Roland, the ruggedness of RZA, and bleakness of Brummie techno for Berceuse Heroique.

Marking over 10 years in the game, ‘Empty Words’ firmly stakes out his style in the nether region of UK club music that emerged during the industrial ‘80s and has endured since the ‘90s in certain aspects of everything from dark garage and dubstep to the past decade of mutant electronics and D&B. It ain’t hard to tell that he fucking loves this style so much that he can’t not try and shape it in his own way, and the dance is better for it. ‘Empty Words’ limbers up in stark warehouse space with body-scanning ’97 synth leads and slowed, lock-jaw breaks like a rictus Toasty cut, while ‘Nothing Positive’ swaggers on crunchy hip hop breaks and string slashes like Kaman Leung jamming with The Underdog. Flipside he switches to the bad foot for the intense negative ecstasy and stush discipline of ‘Dem Control’ working shades away from DJ Scud & I-Sound’s Wasteland project, and ‘We Did It’ recalls El-P’s offset swang and textured sampling, but with an unmistakably UK stance. TIP!