Mumdance - Twists and Turns [mixtape]

One of the first times I heard Mumdance was on some set or at some show where Trim kept bigging on him up because the other MCs were getting frustrated with the strange beats he was playing. Trim has always been a couple of steps to the side of other MCs and, looking back, Mumdance was a step ahead of most producers, his off-kilter electro beats mirroring the increasingly expansive sounds popular in instrumental grime today. Serendipitously, he’s chosen to return now, after a two-year long hiatus from producing, with the new mixtape ‘Twists and Turns’ – a collection of 13 unreleased tracks that demonstrate the total overhaul in his lifestyle and work methods over the period.

His style has certainly become more minimal and unpredictable. Where older tracks like Tarahtid were colourful-weird, the efforts here are stripped-back and volatile – particularly the hyper-formalist takes on the “clicks and bass” Eski template in his five collaborations with Logos, or rich and evocative productions like Springtime and The Wash. Those last two tracks really stand out as the most poignant here, like laser surgery or a synth bath clearing the way for experimentation and big new ideas.