Available on: Well Rounded 12″

Call it future garage, call it what you want. The fact is, 2step is back to take its revenge and hit the giddy heights it always promised. Don’t believe us? Check South East London’s Deadboy for proof.

Like many others who grew up loving the funk, swing and endless thrilling innovations of UK garage, only to see the genre stunted, discarded by others like a bad habit, to him this rhythm is unfinished business. There was a hell of a lot that could be done with it that hadn’t been done until, well, now. Check the ruthless simplicity and effortless groove of ‘Brock Lee Riddim’, a boom click clack attack on our nerve endings and dancing feet. With chopped ‘n’ screwed sampled raps, plunging, technoid synths, and bubbling, bobbing bass, this is a feast for the ear canals and speaker-stacks, and that Detroit keyboard groove ain’t hurting, either.

Lead track ‘U Cheated’ could be even better, more on the UK funky tip, looping up a male R&B hook and pasting it over stuttering soca steps and infectious melodies: irresistible future flavour with immaculate production. Last of all, ‘Heartbreaker’ is a more melancholic, techy stepper, with live drum hits and mournful, tear-stained pads supporting a mangled vocoder vocal. The Dead(boy) shall inherit the Earth.

Ben Murphy