Ivy Lab rounds out three-part EP series with five more tracks on ‘Blonde’
When it comes to all things dark, dismal, and beautiful, underground bass music fans can always count on Ivy Lab. The praised London, UK dubstep trio have been at the fringes of the half-time movement since 2015’s 20/20 Volume One LP. That was some time ago, and although they’re down a member these days, Gove Kidao and Jonathan Fogel have steadily been carrying on the Ivy Lab name with newer hip-hop-inspired abstractions housed within the framework of their indie imprint, 20/20 LDN.
Releasing throughout 2020, with the sort of experimental hip-hop and drum machine electronica to match these bleak times, Ivy Lab first released they’re Fidget EP around a month ago. The five-track project was followed by another short player of the same length, dubbed Teacup. Now, Kidao and Fogel round out the year with their third and final EP with Blonde, making for a stunning 15-track collection that should wet half-time fanatics’ whistles for some time.
Right out of the gate, Blonde is heavy and tumultuously resilient, yet subdued and colorfully cinematic. The EP’s kick-off track is “Husk,” a foreboding (but still effervescent) number with stark bass lines and warm vocal-led melodies. As the track fades away into somber darkness, so comes along “Q.Nix” with it’s eerily toy box top lines juxtaposed against its deep half-time progressions. “Start The Clock,” the EP’s third number, comes in with cinematic flavors and pungent melodies, taking the listener into new sonic directions.
By the time “Gopher” begins rearing its head, with massive synths and sharp tones, fans are already deep into Ivy Lab’s trance. Finally, Blonde closes out with its title track number by the same name. Here, listeners are so deeply hypnotized with Ivy Lab’s signature half-time bliss that they’ve most likely forgotten about all the horror that 2020 has brought along with it.
In any case, the future is bright and promising not just on Ivy Lab’s three-part sonic storyline. The music, no matter how foreboding and grim, serves as an artistic reminder that better days are ahead. We recommend listening to all three EPs in direct succession, below.
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