ASC - 'Reality Check'

ASC is an artist that's basically associated with the Autonomic label, home to a sort of sparse, industrial, somewhat more drum and bass version of dubstep. The productions are usually really tight and controlled in their rhythms, and pretty minimal when it comes to how thick they lay on the synths. It's a pretty unique style. The artists that run Autonomic are Instra:mental, whose track 'Watching You' was on my list of best tracks for 2009. D-Bridge is also a big name on the label and compliments the overall vibe pretty nicely.

ASC still produces for Autonomic, but started his own label called Auxiliary to host his own works, and so far he's released some pretty brilliant stuff on it. The thing about the track 'Reality Check' for me is that I've been waiting almost exactly ten months to buy it. That's one of the pitfalls of the electronic scene, is that artists will hand their tracks over to someone putting together a mix wayyy in advance of the actual release. Sometimes upwards of a year, and sometimes will simply never release the track at all. It's insanely frustrating, but I guess pretty rewarding still in the end.

This particular track was definitely worth the wait. It's easily in my top few favorites of the year. It holds true to overall Autonomic sound. The bass and snares have sort of an industrial pump and push to them, the rhythm production is pretty tightly wound and controlled, and though the synthwork is relatively minimal, it's extremely lush and quite frankly, amazingly gorgeous. There are synth flourishes that completely open up the space of the track, leaving me awestruck. A vocal sample appears throughout to a sweetly mysterious effect, as an utterly beautiful chime-like melody blooms in the background. It's a very nicely layered composition. The rest of the Certainties EP that it comes from is also pretty interesting and certainly worth checking out. har har. but really though, this track is really something special.

ASC - Reality Check by speedglueandmusic_raw3