Mr. Mitch is one of a small group of producers who in the
last few years have been re-imagining the decade-old genre of Grime. Miles
Mitchell, a 26 year-old South East Londoner, started his own Gobstopper label
back in 2010 after having his debut release on Butterz. Last year he started
the flourishing Boxed 'Instrumental Grime' night alongside producers Slackk,
Logos and Oil Gang. For Mr. Mitch, Grime has "&always been an experimental
and progressive genre, taking elements of what came before it and pushing those
boundaries to create something new". His debut album is called 'Parallel
Memories' and Miles has an intriguing story that explains that title. When
listening to his tracks, he sees the same vivid scenes in his head each time he
replays the music, often repeated snapshots of his life in various impossible
scenarios or distorted situations. This made him think "What if the images
I'm seeing are memories from an alternative version of me in a parallel
dimension?" A question which reflects his vision of Grime too, as his
instrumentals are informed by a quite personal and emotive alter-life, where
Grime's famous minimalism gives way to a gentle subtlety and is imbued with a
very different feeling to the brash aggression associated with the genre. The
album intro 'Afternoon After' is the bleary-eyed sound of the club the night
before, broken down into swirling child-like synth melodies, coiling over
flattened, but airy kick drums. 'The Night' follows, sounding like something
Boards Of Canada might do if they came from S.E. London, its gorgeous flute
melodies opening up gracefully over minimal rhythms and shifting static tones.
'Intense Faces' marks a shift in the energy to bassline, synth swoops and sharp
claps, a child-like bleep tune playing out over the top. 'Don't Leave' switches
the mood to one of sadness, its rising chords evolving over a repeated,
slowed-down acapella. Elsewhere 'Sweet Boy Code', a collaboration with fellow
Gobstopper artist Dark0, lets spacey kicks propel its gentle relaxed melodies
over airy sampled vocals. The midpoint track 'Wandering Glaciers' twists Grime
into what sounds like a tense piece of early electronica. Meanwhile 'Bullion'
chops up a lumbering sample that sound like a marauding giant. The album
finishes on 'Hot Air', with its drum pattern sounding like a slow heart beat
and strange, backwards synths, it feels like a voyage around a body.This is an
album that deserves to find an audience who are willing to go on a journey into
new areas with Grime.
- Format Detail: 2LP w/ DL
- Format: Vinyl
- Genre: Dance & Electronic