[Album Review] Muzzy - The Takeover EP

I've known of the Monstercat label for a while now; artists like Stephen Walking, Rogue, and Ephixa. But only recently have I started to go into their entire catalogue of artists - Droptek, 7 Minutes Dead, and others.

For now, I'm taking a look at Muzzy - drum and bass phenom. His style really brings me back to classic drum and bass sounds, though not quite jungle. In comparison, Muzzy's sound is more modernized and polished, and now that he's released his The Takeover EP, I'm very excited to see what he has coming next.



Fortunately, we have been provided some insight into the motivations behind each of the tracks on his new EP.

Each track has a different reasoning behind it, while still sounding relatively thematic - and that's extremely important when defining your sound as a producer. 'Draining Atlantic,' for instance, has a very ethereal feel to it, alluding to longing and interrupted love. On the other hand, as Muzzy himself wrote, 'The Phantom' was written with High Maintenance as a track that would go down well live. With a drop that immediately puts emphasis on the high synths and rolling bass line, it's got a quality jump-up feel to it. 'The Phantom' wouldn't be out of place, at all, in a Chase & Status or Drumsound & Bassline Smith set. Even the crowd samples in the background give it a live set feel.

Other tracks 'Timberwolf' and 'Rave Through The Apocalypse' draw on more natural themes. Plenty of, relatively, natural sounds - drums, synths - with a dark and demented bass line give 'Timberwolf' a more worldwide quality. As Muzzy puts it, "...kinda how I would imagine flying across the globe would feel like." Finally, 'Rave Through The Apocalypse,' Muzzy says, is influenced by his love for horror/thriller film scores (not unlike Figure). The snares hit noticeably harder; the melody is more subtle, beneath the surface; the vocal samples are foreboding and terrifying. With the build-up, you get the sense that something terrible is about to happen; and I believe that's what's most important in a horror score - that feeling of imminent danger. So for that, at least, Muzzy has hit the nail on the head.

What I look for in each of the artists and albums that I review are talent and room to grow, and that's no different with Muzzy. If this is the best he's got, I'd be very disappointed, because there's no way he doesn't have more up his sleeve. For what it's worth, I'd love to hear a whole hour set from the man featuring his favorite drum and bass tracks - at the very least, I'd get an hour of Muzzy.