Intense Records

Request / Philo [7" Vinyl]

£7.49 (£8.99 incl. VAT)

A. Request B. Philo

Trule materialized fully-formed in late 2018 with zero hype or fanfare, and quickly became a buy-on-site label for fans of dubwise garage/tech/bass hybrids. It took us a minute to realize that the label’s boss and primary artist Al Wootton was none other than Deadboy, who’d been making post-2 Step memories for his many devotees with a decade’s worth of melancholy club beasts like “U Cheated” (Well Rounded) and “If U Want Me” (Numbers). We knew we had to have some of his new works for ZamZam, so we couldn’t have been happier when he crafted some sound system tunes just for us, the first label besides Trule to host tracks under his under his own name. 

“Request” marries a steamrolling bassline to a pummeling 4/4 kick, syncopated percussion, dark skanks, and layer upon layer of haunted reverbs, vocal fragments, and decaying tape delay. While full steppers, the slyly swung drum work never let you forget his roots in deep garage and house. Special Request!!

“Philo” cranks the tempo up to 140 for for a dub techno stepper that is at once storming and dreamlike, the pounding kick and militant snare fills contrasting starkly with floating pads that oscillate and shimmer, floating up from the dreamlands only to be shot through with lasers and left in fragments of reverberation. Late night B side for the stamina crew.