The Cosmos - The Cosmos EP
Exeter’s Substantial Audio imprint returns in force with a brand new 4 track EP from none other than Nottingham’s The Cosmos. Helmed by the enigmatic Mr Mud, if you haven’t become acquainted with the label, now’s the time! With six releases already in the bag, Substantial have proved time and again that they are truly masters of curating heavyweight EP’s that let artists showcase the different avenues in their respective sounds.
We featured The Cosmos back in ‘Who’s doing bits 001’, making note of his crazy work rate, so it was no surprise when this brand new 4-tracker landed in the emails. There are two things you need to know about Cosmos: his low ends are weighty (prepare to get noise complaints from your neighbours’ neighbours) and he produces at a rate like no other. Definitely someone you want to keep a close eye on in the future.
Personally, Cosmos is one of my favourite producers out there at the moment. There’s no pretence behind his sound, and I think this is what draws me to his productions. Obviously, I don’t know what goes through someone’s head when they sit down to make a track, but with Cosmos riddims I really get the impression they’re designed with the dancefloor in mind. These aren’t tunes to debate and discuss with your fellow internet nerds (no hate, I definitely fit that bracket), these are tunes to melt your face at 3am in a sweaty club.
And if you were looking for face melters, congratulations! You’ve found them. From the minimal bullfrog sounds of ‘Twisted Ankle’ to the frenetic wobbles of ‘Beating the Block’, this is a stylistically diverse EP, sonically linked by Cosmos’ signature swampy subbass, guaranteed to motivate the dancefloor skankers. It’s the variety in sound styles that make Substantial and Cosmos a solid match. I’m a big fan of the full-length EP releases that Substantial put out, it leaves a lot of scope for the artist to play with. You could opt for something more conceptual or, as in this case, something with a lot of variety. And with ‘The Cosmos EP’, you’ve got that high-quality diversity. Honestly, if you were trying to convert a non-dubstep head to the golden genre on the premise that it incorporates a large number of different sounds and styles, you could do a lot worse than sitting them down with this EP to show them what you mean.
Dirty Beats Premiere of 'Flamez N Fire'
Each track is more than capable of standing on its own two feet, but for me personally the diamond in the goldmine has to be ‘Flamez n Fire’. The only way I could really describe it would be imagine if Ishan Sound and Loefah linked up for a couple of special brews then went studio together. It’s got those icey Ishan pads and those wobbly Loefah-esque subs, a true dancefloor demolisher. It’s one of those tunes that uses space really effectively. Besides the sublow wobbles and icey pads, there’s not a lot else going on in the track and for me that’s the prime indicator of a beautifully crafted dubstep track. When your riddim is doing its job without getting too crowded, you’ve struck gold basically.
There’s not much more I can tell you really, solid EP by a solid producer on a solid label.
The Cosmos EP drops tomorrow and will be available from the following: Beatport Juno
iTunes
Bandcamp Spotify Amazon
(Links in due course)