I freely admit that dubstep has all but passed me by these past couple of years. There is one occasion that I remember dancing vigorously and almost uncontrollably to a Skream DJ set. And the other occasion is being fortunate to experience the second Burial LP Untrue that seemed to whip everyone into a frenzy, including such luminaries as Edith Bowman, and appealed to my love of all things atmospheric and slightly bleak.

And here I find myself again listening to, and thoroughly enjoying, a second album by a dubstep artist when I’ve not even heard the artist’s supposed breakthrough debut.

OK so it’s not that much like Burial, but it’s not noisy dubstep for the dancefloor either. Instead it’s an ace collection of tracks in which you can easily lose yourself; beautiful and not always complicated, with significant crossover towards IDM and that style of emotional techno purveyed by the likes of Vince Watson or Steve Rachmad.

I have to say it’s not exactly my dubstep epiphany, but it’s when genres collide that sometimes really interesting things happen.

DESCRIBE IT IN THREE WORDS
atmospheric, inoffensive, emotional

MUM DANCE FACTOR
Definitely not. (1/5)

COVER ART
Typical anonymous form/structure type illustration which does nothing for the album’s longevity. (2/5)

VERDICT
(3.5/5)

The sample track I’ve chosen here is the last one on the album, Escape Velocity.

Unbalance is out now on Tectonic.