Has anyone come up with a conclusive explanation as to why there seems to be such a substantial crop of relatively young producers consistently turning out quality music over the past few years? There’s definitely something to be said for the “computer age,” and the fact that many of these young up-and-comers have had access to sophisticated music production software since the beginning of their creative endeavors, but maybe there’s something deeper at work here. Perhaps there’s something intrinsic within this generation which allows individuals to consume and create at a much higher quality and much faster rate than ever before. Gerry Read is one such individual, and at the ripe age of 18 the UK producer has been picked to present two songs for only the second single to come from Ramp‘s newest sublabel, Fourth Wave.
Marking his second release of the year, “Untitled” b/w “Legs” sees Read moving past the UK bass/post-dubstep underpinnings that characterized the “Last Times” b/w “Patterns” single (which came out earlier this year on Dark Arx), and instead readjusts his focus on crafting two deep, gritty house tracks that bring to mind fragmented pieces of Detroit and Berlin while pushing their own way forward. Absolutely pumping from its onset, “Untitled” is a filtered, soulful jaunt through sample-based house, while “Legs” is more of an unrelenting club cut, pairing Notorious B.I.G. vocal chops and cut-up funk guitar against a bass-laden, percussive core. Taken together, the two tracks place Read at the edges of the UK scene, which has undoubtedly begun to lean more towards house as of late, but, with few exceptions, has been slow to venture this far out into the depths of adventurous, sonically rich, and undeniably straight-up house production. The combination of slightly distorted, overtly compressed drums, distant glimpses of soulful nostalgia, and well-placed, irresistible percussion elements make for much more than a promising release. If Read’s output grows better with age (which it appears poised to do), then it will certainly be something to keep an eye out for.
