As time draws nearer to the decade mark for White Peach Records, the first thing my mind is drawn to is the label’s continual professionalism and discipline. Fifty releases deep now and the label still follows a strict and successful structure of four killer tunes per release and boy are they always killer tunes! For the big five-oh, label founder Zha finally prints his name onto White Peach wax for the first time in five years. With this being his first release in half a decade that isn’t on his side project NAAN, he has waited for the right time to unleash some of his best material to date. Where Zha has displayed leanings and preferability towards the grimier side of 140 in the past, he goes fully committed into his brand of dexterous, stank face inducing Dubstep on ‘Snails’ EP.
With no warm up necessary and contrary to the opening ‘slow down’ vocal, Zha delivers increasingly tough sub-low basslines on the opening track ‘Snails‘, supported by perfectly refined Foley percs. Following the sneaky, vibrant twangs on the downbeat, run for cover before the snail slithers over plutonium, loses it’s shell, and grows into a giant sized screw-face stomper! The sun leaks through the settling nuclear haze of it’s predecessor as ‘Daisy‘ grows from the fallout, illuminating with perfectly twisted, de-tuned chimes, lively drums and refreshing energy. A stimulating cut with it’s jazzy moments as we move to the darker b-side. On the flip, ‘Shattered’ opens with a lengthy, suspenseful intro until Zha immerses himself into an intensive shoulder-swaying roller, the whispered tribal chants mirror the unrelenting bass-line. But only for a moment however, when the native swing recedes back to sharp, snappy percs, sullen chords and distant vocal hollers. This one is a teaser for sure! And finally, Zha goes nuclear again, leaving the biggest to last with ‘Tunnels‘. A blistering track towering over any rivals. The aggressive stabs of distortion, somewhat mimicking the crunch of a guitar hooked to a stomp box, switches powerfully with smoother throbs of low end pressure, loyally following the same shape and pattern. Other than the aptly clanging percs and subtle vocal trails, this one is powerfully minimal and my pick of the bunch.
Like the majority of his signings in the past, Zha has developed a perfectly weighted, balanced record of his own for White Peach‘s half century mark. And if you’ve missed even a quarter of those, then I can guarantee you’ve missed out, so don’t make the same mistake again with ‘Snails‘ EP!
WPR050 is out this Friday (23rd November) and is available on vinyl and digitally from the White Peach Records Bandcamp.
Check out Zha on Soundcloud and Twitter.
Check out White Peach Records on Soundcloud and Twitter.