Sportex // Dmitri

With a name to cause even the most unpronounceable witch house musician to turn green with envy, you could be forgiven for expecting Greek producer Δ Δ, also known as Dmitri, to be churning out trendy, of the moment beats that will sound stale in a couple of years’ time. This would be a mistake however, and with figures such as Mary Anne Hobbs (via her show on XFM) and Rob Booth (via his legendary Electronic Explorations podcast) promoting Dmitri’s sound, it’s clear that although his production sounds very much of its era, it does so in the best possible sense – it draws on a plethora of past influences (see his Nothing Days mix available on soundcloud) and yet feels vitally modern, at the forefront of the diverse strands of electronic music it encompasses.

The 808-driven ‘Sportex’ takes lead from the footwork influenced releases by Addison Groove, Ramadanman et al, but clocking in at around 130bpm, and with a chopped Bone Thugs vocal sample, resembles more a pulsing fusion of earlier ghetto house and fragments of dubstep. The classic acid synth line which enters the fray at the four minute mark justifies the track’s length, and widens the sonic palette to give it greater depth by being well juxtaposed with the aforementioned vocal element. The track itself is over nine months old, and a glance at Dmitri’s soundcloud page indicates that it occupies just a corner of his musical domain, with more recent tempo-spanning tracks incorporating components from ambient, electro, instrumental hip hop and dubstep. With a release on US label Pushing Red forthcoming (including a remix by Ikonika), expect to be hearing a lot more from Dmitri, or if you insist**, **Δ Δ, over the final months of 2011.

• Published
• Aug 16, 2011

• Credits
• Words by Rob Heath