- As a co-founder of Boxed and a grime head since day one, Paul Lynch is both a godfather figure and a scene leader when it comes to the genre's new wave of producers. As a DJ he takes a no-holds-barred approach, and combing through his sets is a surefire way to pick out upcoming anthems. His own productions feel more careful and considered, full of slow melodies and jazzy harmonics. It's a style that he nearly perfected on last year's Palm Tree Fire album. With his debut for R&S, Backwards Light, he delivers six elegant new tracks.
Lynch has gradually tightened up his songwriting since he started out in 2010, and the tracks on Backwards Light are among his most economical. His sounds are clean and bright, from the sonorous ring of opener "Bells" through the sinogrime flourishes of "Saigon" and the graceful title track. "Backwards Light" is effortlessly beautiful, with plaintive strings that sound like they're being plucked by hand.
The more aggressive tracks also have a stateliness to them, like the orchestral march of "Sleeper Carriage," or the grandiose "Monument"—which was apparently inspired by R&S's history—where snappy percussion thunders beneath wide synth strokes and sampled chants. It's a push-and-pull that epitomizes Slackk's music. This also comes out in "Posrednik," the EP's standout, where gurgling acid lines slosh up against an erratic lead, as if an IDM virus infected Lynch's laptop. It's both familiar and alien, the mark of a producer whose music is moving beyond its origins in grime towards something undiscovered.
トラックリストA1 Bells
A2 Posrednik
A3 Monument
B1 Sleeper Carriage
B2 Backwards Light
B3 Saigon