“i’ve said it before, but dancehall and its influence on uk music has been a massive inspiration for me, going way back to hearing chris goldfinger on radio 1 playing music that was like nothing else i’d heard before. i love that fundamental rhythmic pattern, and i love how within the same world you can have some tunes that are built around the sweetest melodies and harmonies, and others that are built around super-tuff minimal drums and crazy squeeks and bleeps.
when it came time to build another ep for critical, i decided to link up with my good friend and long-time collaborator rider shafique, who has a much deeper knowledge of this music than me, and together create something that references both old and new dancehall, while still being playable in the kinds of sets i ve become known for. there’s no halftime and no chopped-up jungle breaks here - we wanted to make something really focussed and even disciplined - and hopefully we’ve succeeded.
big shouts to the vocal collaborators - super hyped to work with stush on a tune, irah came through with the righteous fire, and tiffanie malvo absolutely bodied her beat - but ultimate biggups have to go to rider. this wasn’t a project where i made the beats and rider voiced them - for pretty much every tune, we worked and reworked the riddims together. we’re both stoked on the results, and it seems like people in the dance feel the same way.” - sam binga
