PEVERELIST - ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES/DIE BRUKE (Punch Drunk 12")

Following the genre-busting techno crossover of his debut, Bristol's Tom Ford returns with a contemplative second release. In a similar way to Burial's ghosted 2-Step laments, "Roll With The Punches" feels like an elegy, only this time the subject of mourning is primordial Grime at the peak of it's inhuman powers circa 2002-04. Opening with a plangent keyboard motif, the rhythm gradually builds on a bed of subsonic throb, featuring gently insistent metallic 'cock-back' samples and moody synth undercurrent. Then, midway through, a pure squarewave melody swoops upward from the void; a plaintive expression of loss and longing that transforms the track into a funeral hymn bathed in Eski-afterglow.

With it's German title, one might expect "Die Bruke" ('The Bridge') to be a continuation of the Hardwax-aware hypnotic minimalism of "The Grind" from his debut, and there's certainly elements of that in the galloping hi-hats, cyclic keyboard undulations and amorphous backdrop of echo-fx that pervade throughout. But here Peverelist imbues his music with greater structure and development, featuring a lead-synth refrain with an unusual envelope shape reminiscent of some of the textures used by Throbbing Gristle on their "20 Jazz Funk Greats" album. Understated yet highly absorbing, "Die Bruke" is another uniquely personal detour along the dubstep highway.