Wen
Signals
Meet Wen: the 22-year-old production prodigy with his own bass-heavy sound built on a pulsing rhythmic backbone, a nuanced sense of environmental texture and coded vocal samples that interject like pulses. You could call the latter ‘signals.’ The album begins by building a space, setting the mood; settling into the kind of textures and temperament not often heard since the very earliest “roots of…†era of dubstep – long before Wen’s time. “It's about bringing things down, creating space - some fresh air, room to breathe,†says Wen. “Galactic,†resurrected from a corrupted Fruity Loops file on a lost hard drive, is ethereal Blade Runner grime. “Lunar,†which features Keysound label boss Blackdown, is a Detroit-style night drive through Babylon. Like a breaking storm, the album builds in power and intensity. At almost exactly the mid point – during the bouncy but otherwise warm 4x4 garage relick of “Swingin’†– the calm is punctured. “Your neck…†it interjects… “Your neck should be swingin’ brother… †Often sampled from dense London slang and live pirate radio, these are Wen’s heavy signals; weighed down with coded nuance. Power, locale, identity, intent, inequality, sexuality, gender, diversity, energy: all are regular themes of these encoded pirate transmissions. “When I send out my responses it's stamped with my identity,†explains Wen who recently remixed a classic from grime pioneer Dizzee Rascal. “The album was a way to show some progression through that identity. It has some calmer, emotive moments but moves into some energy and brightness, taking the temperature down to a darker place but ramping the urgency and tension up towards the end.†Each signal is a like node in a spacious neural network; bursting into the moment only to swiftly retreat, leaving a spectre hanging, shimmering into the spaces between the spaces. “We be up vampin’… in the spot…spot… spot…†echo’s “Vampin’â€. It’s as if those neurons are firing off an implied silver screen narrative. “In the spot…†leads you into a hot after hours club scene full of complex, interpersonal power dynamics of those living for the weekend. “Every night… in my city… every night…†invokes cold night drives; a stolen BMW weaving through lanes of traffic, out running the drag of 9-to-5 monotony until the petrol tank ran dry. “Girl, I gotta watch my back… because I’m not just any guy,†is the driver’s illusionary hubris and neurosis. Is this vivid or is the signal corrupted? In the space between the precise vocal node and the abstract cold plane lies just enough imprecision for the brain to backfill with widescreen outcomes. Who, what, where, why? Wen. From this inflection point, the album’s airwaves are alive with lyrical combat - so much so that certain vocal samples were still so red raw they had to be edited for wider consumption. “Time†offers to “make the average man nervous…†before insisting “time ain’t taking it’s toll/all it does is make me more cold.†In an era where the inner city youngers compete against preceding generations for even more deadly reputations, these are the warning signs, plucked out of the ether from an attentive listener and his inner city friend (co-producer on this track, Parris), sitting way out in the margins. So when we hear “come, let’s get lively†and “we wanna go in…,†the line between suggestion and imperative is lost. We are getting lively and we are “going in.†And so the album builds, into the dancefloor heater “Signal,†that riffs and twists the malleable Yard fragment “sit-nah†into “signalâ€, a frozen micro moment surgically extracted from one of the most legendary grime sets. As the alarmist grime horns and ruff soca beats build the sense of urgency, the vocal fragment gives way to an encrypted Morse code riff. Body movements can respond to a variety of signals it seems. By the time you hear Wiley actually spitting Wen’s name over one of his beats, in the intro to “Nightcrawlers (devils mix)â€, this language-dense album is close to reaching both its climax and it’s logical conclusion: a full vocal with grime legend Riko. “Signals were sent out from inner city London to who ever wants to listen, via whichever medium was available…†explains Wen of his past before turning towards the present. “It only feels right to send something back.â€
Tracklist
CD Tracklisting:
1. Intro (Family)
2. Galactic
3. Lunar Ft Blackdown
4. You Know
5. Persian
6. Swingin’ (LDN Mix)
7. Vampin’
8. Time Ft Parris
9. In
10. Signal
11. Nightcrawler (devils Mix)
12. Play Your Corner Ft RikoLP Tracklisting:
1. Galactic
2. Lunar Ft Blackdown
3. Swingin’ (LDN Mix)
4. In
5. Persian
6. Time Ft Parris
7. Play Your Corner Ft Riko
8. Nightcrawler (Devils Mix)
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