Review Summary: Storm the floor
Given that other introductions to written work on the controversial genre that is post-2012 trap have said basically all there is to say on the style, converging on the pro-trap-circlejerk/anti-trap-circlejerk singularity until all subsequent state-of-the-genre addresses are rendered superfluous and banal, suffice it to say that
Void, RL Grime’s debut album, won’t rewrite the style’s rulebook. It’s not the Chosen One (if such a thing is even possible, that title most likely goes, ironically, to a 2011 release, Rustie’s
Glass Swords), and its admittedly somewhat unoriginal trap-tastic middle third likely won’t convert the as-yet unconverted to the wonders of the 808. That being said, Henry Steinway is still miles ahead of most other hip-hop producers (doubly or triply so if we extend “producers” to the legions of faceless suburban white teenagers shamelessly wasting valuable Soundcloud server space), and
Void is a reflection of his artfulness with full-tilt mid-range and booming kicks.
More than anything, the album is a testament to his versatility - Steinway knows that fifty minutes of single-note bass and heavily formulaic song structures won’t be anybody’s cup of tea, and acts accordingly. Barring the milquetoast DnB of “Julia,” his decision to throw everything from movie-score supersaw-based trance to jungle breaks into his opus is by and large successful. Especially given the man’s penchant for all-out trap, album opener “Always” comes as a bit of a shock. It’s got the mouse-squeaks of heavily manipulated vocals, of course, but the pitched-up croon falls over a surprisingly melancholy dubstep track, sounding like some combination of Phaeleh’s beautiful ultra-melodic architecture and Flume’s weepy synth work. Meanwhile, “Site Zero / The Vault,” while a tad overblown, toys impressively with quasi-house hi-hats and syncopated kicks before morphing into a monolithic slab of future-noir dread, creeping forward with alarming robotic insanity and lifelessness. Elsewhere, we see the hybrid killer of “Danger” stamped all over with Boys Noize’s signature distorted stomp, but the brief shifts to a half-time 808-based skeleton showcase RL Grime’s flexibility better than anywhere else on the album - his ability to synthesize dirty electro and sparsely-populated hip-hop gives life to a close-to-torpid tuneless hook, and the fluidity of the tune marks it as a certified dance-floor killer.
Indeed, RL Grime doesn’t treat us to his distinctively vivacious style of dancefloor killers until “Scylla,” campy horns and oh-so-satisfying bass converging into one of the largest tunes this side of “Infinite Daps.” It’s on the trap section of
Void where we’re able to see all the weapons in Steinway’s sonic arsenal working together like the cogs in a clock. Bangin’ hip-hop was inevitably going to be RL Grime’s calling card here, and everything from the jungle-cum-wonderfully-off-kilter-synthwork frame of “Valhalla” to “Monsoon”’s surprisingly deft take on big-room trap clicks into place. Though it’s unfortunate that Big Sean’s anemic flow weighs down “Kingpin,” a track which, due to its spareness, would have benefited greatly from the inclusion of a more high-energy vocalist (see Rae Sremmurd’s excellent verse on Baauer’s admittedly more pop-savvy “One Touch”), such a minor negative ends up turning itself into an extra click of the “Next Track” button rather than a full-on album destroyer.
The only major flaw with
Void, as a reader might guess from this review, is that it feels very disjointed, a collection of excellent singles with a few downtempo experiments thrown in rather than something more cohesive. There’s virtually no momentum carried from track to track, and it’s just as effective on shuffle as it is straight through. It’s difficult to talk about the feel of the album as a whole because the release acts more as a pedestal for various facets of Steinway to shine through than a vehicle for some sort of unifying sound. That being said,
Void shows RL Grime at the top of both his game and the current trap scene, devastating mid-range and 808s poised to destroy any club in which they’re let loose.
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