Mathhead: Dirty Deeds
Terminal Dusk

Call it grime, call it dubstep, call it whatever you like: regardless of the label, Mathhead's Dirty Deeds remains one mesmerizing throwdown. In just under 23 minutes, the Brooklyn producer sculpts an incinerating set that aurally exposes the foreboding underbelly of a raging night-time metropolis. “South Bronx” pulverizes with the lethal crunch of its lurching funk pulse and the slam of its hydraulic clang and liquid synth swells. “Bullets of Your Sound (Remix)” is apparently a Drop the Lime-Mad mash-up of some kind but, aside from occasional vocal interjections presumably by DTL's L. Venezia, it all comes out sounding like Mathhead. Vastly different in character from “South Bronx,” the intensity level may be slightly lower but the level of invention is equally high. The snare hits on the B-side's “Parasites” hammer so hard, they verge on decapitating, but the song's synth swarm is equally annihilating. Bringing up the rear, the opening half-minute of “Dream Tigers” suggests Mathhead might leave quietly but the dubstep bomb soon detonates, scattering beat shrapnel and bass acid all over—don't miss, though, the slick soul-jazz break the producer niftily fits in along the way. Breakcore, dub, ragga, and grime come together magnificently in Dirty Deeds' bone-crushing material.

October 2006