The circular snare king of D&B, Redpill has been working a lot of collabs and compilations recently, most notably the surprise jam that is “Energy” with A.M.C, out just last week. He’s certainly been mixing it up, but we haven’t seen a solo multi-track release from the Frenchman in a hot minute. All that is about to change, however, as Redpill returns to his Blackout stomping grounds to release Obliterate this Friday, March 5. Suffice it to say it was worth the wait.
In the vein of mixing it up, no track on Obliterate is anything like the others. Stylistically and production-wise, one can tell it’s Redpill, but they all go in separate directions. The EP’s title track featuring Kryptomedic kicks it off with a return to form: more cyclone snares than you even thought could fit into one piece of music and some deep and heavy phrase transitions that just scream classic neurofunk.
Penultimate track “I Am With You” takes the the EP in a completely different direction with the sound with its ethereal female vocals and sort of club-like pace. There’s still lots of whip-fast snares and a bass breakdown about every third phrase but overall this track has a lighter, more universal vibe. The last track, “Yellow Laugh” also has some strong melodics in it. With the heavy sub bass and heavier scramble-snares, it does a nice job tying the EP together. 
Speaking of scrambles, our premiere if the track “Brokn” definitely tops this any any other tracklist for 2021 thus far. Organized chaos is the name of the game here as “Brokn” opens with what sounds like a Transformer powering up, and it only gets techier from there. The synth part in this track is given over to a heavily syncopated mix of static, crunching machine sounds and discordant sounds as the drop launches the full track. For once, the snares are quite minimal here but intent on having a spiral of some form in every track, Redpill makes the background and break synth the only melody in the track into an absolute hurricane. Similarly, the wind-up to the break and outro is also a megastorm. Redpill’s signature isn’t going anywhere, kids.
A very comprehensive and diverse release indeed, Obliterate seems to take all the best parts of Redpill’s classic style and up the anti, adding melodics, new synth techniques and a sound story that keeps the listener guessing. It’s just the kind of evolution you want to see from a favorite artist: rooted in the style that made him a favorite but branching off and growing in directions fans never thought possible.
Obliterate drops on Blackout this Friday, March 5. Pre-order here.
