![Kyrist - Parallel EP [UA031]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3256b2_795fff121cee4bed9c8228f16a6b3e67~mv2_d_1400_1400_s_2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_980,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/3256b2_795fff121cee4bed9c8228f16a6b3e67~mv2_d_1400_1400_s_2.jpg)
First releases of the new year are always a good time to lay down a statement of intent for the year ahead. Eddy Seven and the Uprise Audio crew undoubtedly know this fact very well and have set the label up for a strong year with UA031.
Marking her debut not only for Uprise Audio but for 140bpm music more widely, Kyrist’s Parallel EP is a heavyweight statement of bass laden intent for 2019. For those not familiar with her work, Kyrist has been taking the Drum and Bass scene by the horns over the last couple of years with her own take on the techier side of the spectrum finding a home on Ant TC1’s Dispatch Recordings. I’m by no means an expert on DnB these days, but stylistically I find there’s a lot of overlap with Kyrist’s sound and those of Alix Perez, Icicle and Skeptical – all old school kings of techy DnB who have all managed to make seamless transitions to the slower bpms with great effect.
The question then becomes one of evaluating Kyrist’s own transition into the world of 140bpm. Does this release stack up alongside her back catalogue? Does it set her up for future forays into the dubstep scene? In my view, the answer is an unequivocal yes to both.
Uprise is undoubtedly the best place this EP could have landed on. If you’ve locked in to any of my other Uprise Audio reviews, you’ll know that as a label they don’t shy away from juggling around with bpms on releases nor do they shy away from stylistic shifts, arguably making them the perfect home for a DnB artist looking to switch up a little bit. One of the key areas that can define a strong label is their willingness to let their artists breath stylistically and experiment with the defining characteristics of their sound, which, as will be shown, has succeeded with this release.
It’s this experimentation with the defining characteristic of sound that makes this such a strong release in my opinion. Particularly when it comes to the techier DnB sounds, it can be very easy for an artist to simply take those fundamentals and repackage them at a different bpm, often to great success. That’s not the route Kyrist has taken though. The Parallel EP marks a profound switch up in the sound scapes conjured by Kyrist, crafting euphoric and ephemeral groovers that are notedly distinct from her body of DnB work.
I think it’s important for you discover these tunes for yourself, so I’m not actually going to talk about them in any detail. Go and dig through them, they’re worth it I can assure you!
Uprise Audio: www.uprise.audio
Kyrist: https://facebook.com/Kyriiist
Love this one