The power of a sad banger has been obvious since the peak days of disco. Some of the best dance music is just as likely to leave a lump in your throat as lift your hands in the air, and few have applied that knowledge to drum ’n’ bass so consistently and convincingly as Hybrid Minds. Since emerging in the mid 2010s, the UK production duo’s liquid rollers have regularly carried a sharp sense of longing accentuated by well-chosen vocal features. That continues on their third album, which explores grief and mental health (“If Love Could Have Saved You”), getting trapped in a cycle of bad decisions (“Stay”) and a yearning for escape (“Lights”, “Castles”), aided by the expressive talents of fast-rising singer-songwriters including venbee, Charlotte Plank and Dan Fable. That’s not to say Hybrid Minds are clinging unbendingly to a winning formula. There’s optimism too (“Kites”), and whenever one hand pulls at the heartstrings, the other is likely to be pushing D’n’B’s boundaries. Across the 13 tracks here, the pair continuously plays with sound and texture, drawing on multiple styles to produce songs that owe as much to folk (“Maniac”, “Tides”), R&B (“Burn Out”) and scruffy indie rock (“Favourite Song”)‚ as they do to breakbeats and sub bass.
- Monrroe
- BCee & Charlotte Haining
- Friction
- Pola & Bryson
- Technimatic