It seems as though the drum and bass community have been waiting on the release of Droptek’s new EP, Fragments, all summer. Monstercat’s releases always tend to be hotly anticipated, but the fact that it has been a full year since Droptek released his monster (pardon the pun) “Killswitch” means that the clamoring for Fragments had reached fever pitch.
Two tracks, “Mimic” and “Ekstasis” were leaked before the Fragments drop date of August 1, and the anticipation grew even further as these two tracks are truly epic. “Mimic” is a fast, techy backward neuro track with a surprisingly ravey break and a drumroll which somehow turns the backwards neuro beat completely around. No doubt EDM fans were salivating over that one.
“Ekstasis” is the closer on Fragments, and it is again highly complex with lots of surprise twists and turns. Beat-wise it’s a cross between dubstep and halftime with so many sinewave synths that it is advised to listen to this track sober the first time to get the hang of it. “Ekstasis” also has some almost angelic vocal elements and video game sounds. It just has to be listened to in order to be appreciated. It’s wacky and heavy all at the same time.
Sandwiched between “Mimic” and “Ekstasis” on the four-track Fragments are “Inject” and the title track, which are halftime and drum and bass, respectively. “Inject” sort of has a standard progression in the way the track is laid out, but once again its beat is so heady and heavy it’s almost hard to not get emotional. The overused term “banger” seems to be the only thing that will suffice in this case. “Inject” has already been getting a lot of play on dnb dancefloors, and it will likely continue to do so.
“Fragments” is a little harder to pin down. Its video game-inspired synths make it almost an electro track, if it weren’t for the snare-heavy dnb that both grounds and pushed the tune forward. “Fragments” could almost be seen as an experimental track if it weren’t for that beat, and by the sound design it sounds as if that was exactly what Droptek was going for.
There’s a lot going on in Droptek’s Fragments EP, and in fact each track has a lot going on in it on the microcosm. This heavily coveted EP was definitely worth the wait, and shows Droptek’s diversity of sound design and general skill in a way that was also worth waiting.
Fragments is out now on Monstercat.
