It’s been so damn good to witness the rapid rise of Ninety. After breaking through with ‘Ambi‘ EP on UNITED last year, the Russian prodigy has continued to develop a versatile sound, full of curiosities and character, whilst rightfully grabbing the attention of many labels and platforms in the process. This week, he reaches a new landmark with a deserved debut EP on the genre defining Duploc! I’ve been lucky enough to possess some unreleased Ninety bits over the course of this year and, as expected from Pieter and the Duploc gang, the label has snagged four of my favourites for DUPLOC046!
It’s the filthy bassline action of ‘Ghoul’ that sets pace for yet another wild Ninety ride. The perpetual groove weaves it’s way into the skull like an earworm. It’s contagious and just as whacky as you’d expect any Ninety tune to be, but it only gets more batshit crazy from here! The following ‘Skull Thoughts‘, is one of my top five favourite tunes this year – there, I said it! The sparse, almost silent intro is as haunting as it is energising, putting oneself on a knife edge as it offers glimmers of the turbulence ahead. From the drop, it swings into twisted modulated synth action, giggling over pumping subs, like an evil jack-in-the-box or a maniacal clown on crack. In fact, it’s reminiscent of another of Ninety‘s tripped-out creations, ‘Clowny‘, but it must be said that this one goes even harder. The break feels just as eerie as the intro, especially after experiencing such anarchy, before another call for ‘violence’ occurs – a warning of a second head-spinning drop!
Two bad boy heaters follow including the punishing sub drives of ‘That’s It‘, where Ninety whips up another mix of convoluted synth lines, seemingly chattering uncontrollably as the tune rapidly rolls on, progressing and switching to the point of disorientation. Concluding is another favourite of mine, ‘Golden Teeth Smile’. There’s plenty of cavernous space in this one, like the entrance to dubstep’s haunted house. Ninety swaps the rigorous basslines for huge kicking sub drops, opening up a chasm for spooky delayed SFX and an unearthly, whispering lead.
Ever since my discovery of Ninety last year, his sound has remained right on point in regards to my personal taste, so it was always a matter of refining that twisted, gnarly sound and here is the fruits of such refinement – four tracks that define Ninety and 140’s prevailing form.
It’s no secret that the small yet growing Russian scene is producing some bangers right now and leading the charge alongside Ninety is Oddkut, who also enjoyed a release on Duploc earlier this month! So, never ones to pass up an opportunity to put together something different, Duploc have ingeniously pieced together a split record featuring two of the best tunes from both Oddkut and Ninety. I was big into hardcore and emo back in the day, a scene where split records were so prevalent, so this is a super niche throwback for myself but most importantly, a different way of presenting fantastic music, and man is it fantastic!
DUPLO046 is out now and available to download here with DUPLOC045/046 available on vinyl here.
Check out Ninety on Soundcloud and Instagram.
Check out DUPLOC on Soundcloud and Instagram.