Magnetic Man
Though dubstep’s low frequency, dark wobble bass-drops and paranoia inducing half-time rhythms have long since found their way from U.K. garages to the airwaves of BBC Radio 1, only recently has the swaggering bastard child of 2-step and grime crept into gritty corners of the U.S. streets. Enter Magnetic Man and their eponymous U.S. debut (released 4/12 digital, 5/10 physical on Startime/Columbia). If the name calls to mind visions of a post-apocalyptic antihero intent upon laying waste to the earth with superhuman powers, you aren’t too far off.
MM’s Benga, Skream, and Artwork, are three producers/DJ’s with serious dubstep credentials who met over a love of pulverizing beats at the now-defunct mecca of the genre, Big Apple Records. Together, Magnetic Man infuses the dubstep landscape with melodic pop grooves that play counterpoint to hyped-up synth and fat bass lines that apply pressure like silky-scaled boa constrictors. Rising U.K. pop star Katy B lends her gentle vocals to the tracks “Perfect Stranger” and “Crossover,” while the addition of Angela Hunte, co-writer of the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys classic “Empire State of Mind,” makes “I Need Air” an infectious pop banger. MM even got soulman John Legend to help smooth out the crunchy back-beats on “Getting Nowhere.” Meanwhile, “Flying into Tokyo,” uses glistening strings to portray an idyllic sense of wonder at surveying Tokyo’s intensity from above, and handily signals that we are entering uncharted territory.
