Must concur with paul kennedy, you simply must go here immediately before Cameo's show from Saturday drops off Ixtra, if you haven't got the time for the full four hours, leap through to approx 15 minutes in where this incredible Essentials tune "Headquarters" (i think that's the title) drops, simon silver dollar was going on about this one if i recall. Oooh, tune of the new year already, right there. Ooh, those eerie cyberwolf-moaning sounds at the chorus bit where the drill sergeant barks "state your location, soldier" and "who you reppin'". Darkness! (Mini--Project: trace the wolf meme through Nuum history... shy fx did a lupine track once, and isn't there a Grime cru called Murky Wolfpack or something?). In response to "state your location",
the 109 MCs guesting on this track invariably say "East" or "South" or "E7", and replying to "who you reppin'", they'll name a crew--Essentials, Aftershock--except for this one guy with a delicious almost-fey voice who says "myself," like he's a one-man renegade legion. Talking of which, later on there's the return of gabba-garridge,: pure gloomcore, stomping beats, Mover/Reign-style down-drooping synths. Then there's a vast swathe of 2step, including this guy Duncan Powell who's an even better Todd Edwards-ripper-of-er than Akufen, and does this great relick of 1999's "Hold On (SE22 Mix)", even more hyperventilating than the Colors/ Stephen Emmanuel's original, and that choppy-fluttery-orchestral IMP batch "gype" tune folk have been frothing about across the bloggsphere, and i dunno, maybe it's just a fluke effloresence, but it feels like a golden age, and this isn't even a pirate show, it's BBC netradio.