The current bass music landscape, primarily in the UK and to a lesser extent stateside, is one that is in constant flux. Every week there is seemingly someone new on the block with an interesting idea for getting you to dance. This leads to some hits, but certainly the fast pace also lends it a lot of ‘flavor of the month’ situations. So, the challenge for a group like Sepalcure, made up of New Yorkers Praveen Sharma and Travis Stewart, is to rise above the sea of producers that are occupying the same space.
Sepalcure’s debut, coming out on trendsetting London label Hotflush, known for releasing the likes of Mount Kimbie and Joy Orbison among others, can be a frustrating record at times. They follow the idea of inclusion here, piecing together as many different dance music signifiers together to make the whole. Bits of house, grime, jungle and rave are all used to form something that could be called, very generically, dubstep, which is of course the most over thought, overused word of 2011. The frustration comes from the level of incorporation Sepalcure strive for, there is so much going on throughout the album that everything sort of mashes together.
Thankfully these guys are able to do quite a few things right. The spectral synths of ‘The One’ and the chugging beat of "Pencil Pimp" are a couple of the stand out tracks here, great examples of Sharma and Stewart’s mastery of the dance universe. "Hold On" is the album's best, built upon a fractured beat and paired with the requisite disembodied vocals floating overhead; it is perhaps one of the least adventurous songs, but by no means is it a sleeper.
Elsewhere Sepalcure seem willing to indulge in the generic dubstep type stuff that is the downfall of many of their compatriots. "See Me Feel Me" and ‘Eternally Yrs’ feature all of the wobble of good bass music, but none of the house indebted soul that comes out so well elsewhere on the album.
As a debut, Sepalcure is a good place to start from, and a way for two NYC veterans to combine their unique skill sets. It sits above the deluge of laptop made dance music, but just barely. In modern terms it’s already somewhat old, and that means that there is probably some teenager sitting in a flat in London fucking around with Ableton and improving on this formula already.
Grade: B-
~Steve Dobek
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