nineteen97 impresses again with new single 'spareno1'

As I hit play on the latest nineteen97 single, I’m met with a wall of textured melancholy seemingly coded in the 2-step sub-genre popularised by a certain Burial. The synth pads are enveloped in a spectral reverb that refuses to retreat into itself as it marches off into a vague distance.

As the rolling drums and hyperactive percussion stampede underneath this grey and lo-fi soundscape, Brumtown’s latest sun gives us a dose of defiance that is awash with a subtle microcosm of this country’s hypernormalisation - that uneasy feeling that things just aren’t right despite everyone’s inclination to keep up the act… Well, that’s my assumption, despite this projection, such a stratified sound design provokes active listening and by wading through the dense traffic you’re rewarded with the obscure cries of a warped bird song.

Like the biblical story of the dove leaving Noah, there’s always relief in the tension. As the stirring strings checkpoint at the start of his fluid performance, nineteen97 has the same flavour of transparency that made Giggs and his SN1 label one of the most impactful groups during the mid to late 2000s. This nod doesn’t stop there, 'Ain’t gonna lie, I fear no one/I feel like I’m SN1/Jump on the mic/Broski, I spare no one'. Invincibility is a trait that pervades throughout all corners of hip-hop, grime, drill, and road rap; so that is nothing new; but it’s rarely been accentuated by such an uneasy sound palette as this, a rapper with an ear for such surreal production is a rapper we should all hear.

Over 100 years ago, in 1913, Italian Futurist and painter Luigi Russolo (1885-1947), mentioned that 'music(al) sound was too limited in its variety of timbres', and whilst I wholeheartedly agree I believe this point is further driven by the deeper you look at genres and their subdivisions, regardless I wonder what Russolo would make of this collage of Birmingham-sourced Future Garage with contemplative lyrics that charter the purgatory of crime and self-sustainability such as 'Man I did road in trapstar/Road in tech fleece, Man I did road in Umbro/Why did I do road man, Fuck knows/I just wanna make art like Phundo.' 

Check out the track below, and let us know your thoughts.