Somewhat mysterious debut 12” from otherwise unnamed south coast producer Dance Fountain that seems to have found an ideal home in Hyperdub, splitting the difference between glassy first wave grime, zoned European electronics ala Tax Free/TRjj and post-dubstep bounce and shimmer, and finding its own alien territory. Since there’s little biography to help contextualise I’m Watching and the label are ushering this out in a fairly under-the-radar manner (no official distribution, no real digital availability), there’s much to be left to guess about here, which has its obvious benefits but also appears to suit the music well, a very bedroom-coded four song selection with a distinctly braindance sensibility, charged with strange percussive flourishes, layered samples (traffic, water, traffic through water?) and synths suggestive of one or two ghosts trapped in the machine. On the strength of what’s on show here, no doubt we’ll be hearing of who Dance Fountain is in due course, but as a first introduction, mysterious or not, this is an undoubtedly intriguing and instantly engaging collection.
FFO: TRjj, John T. Gast, Dip Friso, InWeys, Mister Water Wet
