Beneath - Duty - 12" Vinyl

Beneath's compositions recall Shackleton's later work for Skull Disco, when his frenetic early sides slowed down without becoming a whole lot less frenetic. His sound, though, is from somewhere else entirely. "Duty" has the rhythmic playfulness and liquid bass of UK funky but absolutely none of the bombast. Where we'd expect to hear brash melody, we get only its chilly absence. "Texers" trades in melodic dissonance, and its drums respond in kind with agitated rolls and big snare hits. Neither side is anything like an anthem, but music this absorbing and refreshingly constructed feels like something worth rallying behind regardless.