Enigmatic Manchester-born producer/DJ Martin Lester (aka Glowing Palms) takes the lead for 'Kiki / Asteroidz', Blips Discs latest endeavour, in his first solo EP since 2013. Founded in 2015 by Tom Blip, initial support from Four Tet in his London Boiler Room made their first release, O’Flynn’s explosively percussive ‘Tyrion’, an instant sell-out. Follow ups from the label head himself and the returning O’Flynn paired dark 4/4 beats with clattering world percussion marking a preliminary aesthetic and putting Blips Discs in buy-on-sight territory. Spooky J’s subsequent release (October 2016) broke this pattern darker, alien and outlandishly cross genre, the label widened its parameters.
Equally unexpected and neatly marking the transition from winter to summer Blip Discs succeed their darkest release to date with their lightest. Opening with an insatiably intergalactic, wave-riding, karate kicking, siren-slinging peak time powerhouse, Glowing Palms’ irresistibly playful approach to electronic music is unignorable in both 'Kiki' and 'Asteroidz' (note the ‘z’). The former opens with claps, beeps and blips before erupting into a heady synth line and diving into crashing breakbeat. The opening formula ebbs, flows, is rinsed, repeated and saturated with smatterings of cosmic catcalls which set the scene nicely for 'Asteroidz'. Here, an infectious shuddering synth line, rumbling kick drum, galloping percussion and 8-bit bombardments crescendo to a frenzy before closing on a note of subduction that signals mission complete. Glowing Palms takes his Blip Discs opportunity puts it on an island in the tropics and sends it into space, resulting in one of the most ear catching releases of the year thus far.
4.5/5
Words by Hugo B