At the start of 2012 Sabre, Stray and Halogenix teamed up to drop one of the most blissful pieces of drum & bass that year, ‘Oblique’. Since then the dreamteam have continued their late night studio sessions and are now ready to announce their new collaborative project, Ivy Lab. Kicking off Critical’s 2013 season is the first fruit of their labour, ‘Afterthought’, again featuring the esteemed vocal talents of Frank Carter III to create the most inspired start to the year we could wish for. ‘Afterthought’ is a masterpiece filled with polished breaks, melancholic chords, reversed strings and Carter’s unmistakable heart wrenching sounds that draw us into the spine-tingling production, coming as an Ivy Lab standard. A late night marcher or a summers day soother, the choice is yours for the most beautiful, teary-eyed slice of drum & bass you’ll have heard in a long time. Quality through and through.
‘Brat’ on the other hand shows the other side to Ivy Lab as the guys get aggy at the controls for a supremely sick peak-time performer. Creeping bleep FX open it up as the b-line seeps into the mix for a drop into some proper dance floor funk. Meticulous on the edits and the morphing bass, it’s a dirty yin to the A-side’s yang.
