Ordnance Dub // South London Ordnance

Just as I was beginning to think I couldn’t bear listening to another 808 beat, following its intense resurgence last year, I discovered the stunning array of work put out by South London Ordnance. Encapsulating many of the elements that constitute to his sound is ‘Ordnance Dub’ a dark, bass heavy assembly of fidgeting Techno. As if it can never sit still, Ordnance Dub features plenty of variations, it chugging bassline mutating every sixteen bars or so, and various spaceship style bleeps coming in and out of the mix. Combined with shuffling four four beats, Ordnance Dub wouldn’t sound terribly out of place on a Swamp 81 release, which SLO cites among his main influences. Ordnance Dub manages to create an intensely brooding atmosphere, something which seems to be a staple of most of his tracks. This is helped along by some strongly reverbed & delayed synth squeaks, thickening up the atmosphere. As well as taking influence from the aforementioned Swamp 81 SLO also cites Ramp & Teal Records as well as more experimental techno influences such as the work of producers Shed or Drexciya.

Despite retaining his anonymity, SLO has still managed to cause quite a stir in recent months. Several of his tracks have been featured in a recent Mary Anne Hobbes mix as well as bagging a DJ slot with our friends over at Sub Skank, alongside Visionist & Tanka. Producing under the name for a mere 8-9 months SLO has also managed to bag himself a series of releases throughout the year, his debut EP coming out on Dutch label ‘Audio Culture’ sometime in the next few months. Given the release of the Joy O & Boddika collaborations at the beginning of the year, alongside up and comers such as SLO & Tessela, we can expect it to be a big year for a bass heavy brand of UK Techno.

Ordnance Dub by South London Ordnance

• Published
• Feb 6, 2012

• Credits
• Words by Theo Darton-Moore