During two weeks "sometime between 2008-2009,"
Zomby recorded a tightly concentrated batch of tracks informed by the "eskibeat" sound developed several years earlier by grime catalyst
Wiley. One of the productions, "Mercury's Rainbow," surfaced on
Martyn's Fabric 50 mix in early 2010, but the full project was on ice until 2017. That June,
Zomby tweeted, "It turns out I wanna release an album of all my grime instrumentals," to which the Modern Love label replied, "bout fucking time m8." By year's end, Modern Love fulfilled
Zomby's aspiration by issuing the material as
Mercury's Rainbow. Given that percussive plinks, swooping bass tones, and other traces of
Wiley's advancements can be heard throughout the vast
Zomby discography -- all the way through "Step 2001," produced for
Wiley, and the skeletal Ultra -- this enchanting diversion sounds a little less like a nostalgic whim than does the breakbeat 'ardkore-oriented
Where Were U in '92? Likewise,
Zomby's twists on eskibeat are in full effect. The album is colored with synthesizer melodies that prowl and spiral, crystalline blips, and a compositional approach that combines austerity and concision in a fashion that imparts an off-center daintiness to the whole thing. The producer also indulges in a fondness for brusque mob-chorus exultations -- they resemble clipped chants of soulless bloodsport spectators -- that might exceed his love of airhorn.
Zomby still has a library music-worthy knack for track titles ("Silver Ocean," "Waterfalls of Ice," "Solar Ashes"), yet the most distinctive numbers here tend to have the least descriptive titles ("Poison," "Delvaux," "Atoms"). ~ Andy Kellman