Most dubstep runs on a promise: the drop leads with the nastiest sound in the room, right in the first bar, no easing you in. ini, Keeth and still switch keep that promise on “sonar,” then push the design a step past where I expected it to stop.
The first drop lands in halftime and stays low and mean, the kind of bass you clock in your chest a half-second before your ears catch up. What got me was the second one. They pitch the lead down and let it get uglier, a two-step bounce with a metallic edge scraping over the top, and by the second bar it had me. It is built for the spot up on the stacks, all sub and no daylight.
Three producers on one cut usually turns into a pile-up, everyone’s favorite sound elbowing for the same space. Not here. It is the first time ini, Keeth and still switch land together in their corner of the archive, and they trade the lead instead of stacking it.
No melody to hide behind, no breakdown begging for a lighter in the air. “sonar” is content to be heavy and a little mean, and it does not blink.
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