Quicksand // Tanka

Tanka once again exercises his well defined sound, and excellently crisp production with this dark, tribal thumper. Blending classic 808 dancefloor beats with more experimental sounds ‘Quicksand’ brings to mind productions from the likes of ‘Untold’ or ‘Objekt’ combining dry, erratic tribal percussion, with deep subs and twisted melodies. These intricate rhythms are driven along by Quicksand’s incessant bassline, plumbing its way forward right throughout the track. This is wonderfully ingratiated with the percussion, the bassline sound subtly migrates from a drum like muffled thumping into something alot meaner and more aggressive with a welcome injection of distortion. This added punch gives the bassline a taste of that late 90’s steroid pumping drum and bass sound.

Into the second half of the track this bassline is accompanied by a delicate Kalimba melody, clarifying any ambiguity about the tribal influences of Quicksand.

Francis Leigh aka Tanka, has been keeping up a production rate at the moment, with releases on ‘Hot & Heavy’, ‘Sounds of Sumo’ & Overcooked Records just too name a few. Tanka’s also keeping up appearances on the DJing side of things. With stacks of live shows under his belt, he played last Thursdays Corsica studios weekly event Church, alongside electronica meets garage producer Gang Colours.

• Published
• Nov 17, 2011

• Credits
• Words by Theo Darton-Moore