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Trigger Finger // Zuli
Plunging dubstep, jungle and grime tropes into the digital brewers mill, ‘Trigger Finger’, the latest release on Haunter Records, is as affront as the title might suggest. The EP comes courtesy of Cairo-based Ahmed Al Ghazoly, aka Zuli, a producer already gaining notoriety for his data-moshed percussive abstractions and noise-caked half-steppers on Lee Gamble’s UIQ imprint.
‘Trigger Finger’ finds appropriate footing on Haunter, a label oft frequented by a similar amalgamation of mangled drum n’ distortion workouts and Windows 99 nostalgia. The title track is pure dancefloor weaponry; HAL 9000 death throes leaving you in unsettled suspended space between viciously overdriven breaks and demolition-charge low-end. ‘Your Tracks Are Too Short’ meanwhile, leaves a metallic aftertaste. Taught, relay-baton rhythms buffet against stuttered full-fat kicks, itching overhead percussion and torpedoing drones.
Despite their undoubted club-influence, Ghazoly’s productions enjoy subtlety in equal measure. ‘X3’ sounds like a cross between one of Fuck Buttons’ bitcrushed ambient epics and ultra-sparse Deep Medi-style swayers. ‘Everyday’ and ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ also place emphasis on textural richness, samples kneaded and reshaped until they take on new forms entirely.
Haunter Records have had a rather immaculate run of releases by any standards, yet ‘Trigger Finger’ stands out in particular. Ghazoly has added depth and dimension to an already formidable sonic palette, crafting a release both taught and unyielding, yet also syrupy and elastic.
- Published
- May 3, 2018
- Credits
- Words by Theo Darton-Moore