“Hyph Mngo”
by Joy Orbison
(Hotflush)
The beginning of “Hyph Mngo” barely registers the first time
through. That’s on purpose: It’s a couple piano chords hidden behind
heavy curtains, with a timekeeping tick. Around the minute mark, things
shift, and the piano rumble reveals itself as silvery synthesizer
chords, drifting back and forth; then the background falls away, and
the chords are joined by a treated female voice yelping “I do!” and
another just going “Ooh!” An elastic bass and beat come in: This is
dubstep, but with a euphoric sense of purpose rather than foreboding
that used to be the style’s stock-in-trade. The elements repeat and
alternate like there’s no tomorrow. It’s simple and hugely effective, a
club anthem in London months before its official release, and pretty
much the dance record of the year.
Joy Orbison—the alias of 22-year-old South Londoner Peter
O’Grady, the nephew of drum-and-bass bigwig Ray Keith—has taken
dubstep another step closer to the straighter groove of house, and the
clean-lined immediacy of “Hyph Mngo” makes it precisely the kind of
crossover record that threatens to spawn dozens of knockoffs in the
months to come. Each, it’s easy to worry, may well be sillier and less
resonant than the last. But who knows? There’s something urgent in that
repeated “I do” that makes it seem like the climax of a busy couple
years, a period when dubstep became a field of play, during which it
shifted from one-note moodiness to any number of moods. The amazingly
creative readings and mutations of dubstep from all over this year have
been one of the genuine bright spots of 2009, and “Hyph Mngo” is the
tip of an iceberg.
“Game Over”
by VV Brown
(Capitol)
Another only-in-London record, by a statuesque (five feet eleven)
Caribbean-English fashion model turned songwriter turned performer
who’s probably as canny as any of her American R&B counterparts.
This track has some vivacity, and so does the vocal, but the song is
too thin for all of its bells and whistles, especially when it includes
lines like “This is my life, not a game of poker.”
“Joy Reel”
by Lone
(Werk)
How many pieces of abstract, instrumental digital glossolalia do
you get stuck in your head unbidden? Probably not many, in which
case this track—something like the offspring of the Black Dog and
Flying Lotus—would like to say hello.
“Fireflies”
by Owl City
(Universal Republic)
Ben Gibbard’s voice needs to call its lawyer. 