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Single Reviews
Single review: Maddslinky – Further Away (Tru Thoughts)
By Paul Vig | Published on Tuesday 25 January 2011
Former rare groove DJ Dave Jones morphed into Zed Bias in the late 90s and became a garage pioneer, but more recently has been making dubstep under the name Maddslinky. An excellent second album under that moniker was released last year.
‘Further Away’ was one of the highlights from that record. Downtempo beauty with poise, the lush vocals of Beverley Tawiah make this reminiscent of a soulful 4hero cut. With its thoughtful orchestration, it’s a modern day electronic ballad that tugs a little at the heart strings. The original album track appears here alongside a radio edit, and an a capella and instrumental version. Beyond that, Tru Thoughts has gone completely off the wall, including a further nine remixes.
Of the legion of rerubs, one stand out is the Falty DL mix. The New York-based breakbeat experimentalist pushes the buttons for a truly awesome rework, though the smashing sub bass he’s added needs a good system to do it justice. Starting off low tempo, it then kicks in proper and goes a bit more bleepy. Stunningly good.
The other remix of note is the Dawn Raid mix. The Manchester dnb collective absolutely rinse it out – a rocking early 90s styled drum n bass cut, with a bit of a nod to both Ray Keith’s seminal ‘Terrorist’ and Dillinja’s teachings of bass ballistics. Really very good.
The other mixes are OK, too. Hint takes it hectic, Funk Butcher threads a bossa element throughout, Dubchild takes a warped b line and counters it with some lush harp-like keys, and NDV gives us a tripped out 2step wibbler.
A great single, and some crackers of remixes. And the really great news is that Jones has also recently signed his Zed Bias garage alias Tru Thoughts. Good times are surely ahead. PV
Physical release: 24 Jan
