Hooversound’s latest release, ‘Swamp Season’, is an outlier

Hooversound Recordings’ latest, ‘Swamp Season’, is an outlier transgressing genre boundaries across electronic and hip-hop aesthetics.

Dropped on March 7, the EP comes via UK-based producers Deft and Manni Dee, names familiar to leftfield bass devotees who will have heard their respective releases on Exit, Critical, 1985 Music, and Fabric Originals, to name a few; ‘Swamp Season’ is Deft’s third outing on Hooversound.

‘Swamp Season’ is not the duo’s first collaboration, having first made tunes together in the early 2010s. Since then, the producers have been in each other’s orbit—sharing a studio in East London—and the result is a cohesive release that explores its key sonic threads thoroughly across five tracks.

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Aptly self-described as “Low slung, bass heavy Timbo beats from the depts of 2100”, the EP hovers around the 90-110 BPM range that characterised 90s and Y2K hip hop (and the “Timbo” influence is clear across tracks like ‘Busy Bee’ where quirky processed vocals are used as rhythmic devices—a Timbaland signature). Then, add to that gritty bass textures, supercharged mid-range synths, and contemporary hip hop influences like triplet hats, and ‘Swamp Season’ materialises out of the mire.

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Deft and Manni Dee have promised more collabs in the near future and considering their past work together was in the 160 realm, we look forward to where the pair will venture to next.

Listen to and purchase 'Swamp Season' here.

Mengzy is Mixmag Asia’s Music Culture Columnist, follow her on Instagram.

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