Brackles: Songs For Endless Cities Volume 1

Brackles: Songs For Endless Cities Volume 1
24-year-old London producer, Brackles has been hailed as the future of the UK’s dubstep and garage movement. As co-owner of Blunted Robots and a regular on Rinse.fm and FWD, he is already all over the scene. On Songs For Endless Cities Volume 1, Brackles delivers a DJ-Kicks-type overview of the freshest joints in the scene including a brand new and exclusive track by himself.
What Brackles does very well on Songs For Endless Cities is not get pigeonholed with only UK artists. While the garage/dubstep scene is based there, there are plenty of artists around the world that are aping the sound. The compilation kicks off with Flying Lotus, an experimental DJ from Los Angeles. The track original appears on Flying Lotus’ 2008 release, L.A. EP 1 X 3 but serves as great mood-setter for the compilation.
Despite some esoteric international choices, the compilations main crux is UK dubstep producers. Brackles uses tracks from big name producers Zomby, Cooly G and Deadboy. But the big selling point of the compilation is the exclusive track from Brackles.
The track is called “Blo”. The track is a little busier than the traditional dubstep track, with overly complex drum programming and 90s techno-style keyboards. The track is fair but I feel like it fails in the context of the album because of its placement. It is placed after arguably the high point of the album for me which is Roska‘s stunning track “I Need Love”. “BIo” ends up feeling like more of a transition out of “I Need Love” than a track that could stand alone but I guess that is why it was made specifically for this mix.
In the end, the compilation does its job; it really evokes certain imagery. If you close your eyes, you can imagine being in a humid underground London club listening to the thumping beats while a sweaty mob dances about with lazer lights as the only illumination. But unlike those nights clubbing, the compilation comes with a track list allowing you to pinpoint tracks of particular interest and doing further exploring into the artists. It is not like the idea is a new and novel concept or that it has never been done and done well before, but Brackles really does a great job creating a genre overview of the underground dubstep/garage scene.
Rating: 8.0/10
MP3: Brackles “BIo”
Buy: iTunes or Insound!