If you live in New York, and you've been frequenting the Lit City Raves that have been happening of late, you've probably caught a DJ set or two from Durban, the solo project of London-born, New York-based producer Joe Papas. Like his close friend and Lit City Trax founder J-Cush (also of Future Brown), he's one of a growing number of millennial beatsmiths interested in providing their own idiosyncratic take on historical genres like grime and jungle while also exploring the ratcheted-up tempos and sample-triggering mania of present-day Chicago footwork. There a lot of great tracks on his SoundCloud and they all sound pretty different, but "DIRRRT" is a cut I've taken a particular liking to, and it skews more heavily toward a grime palette, building on a sinister, theremin-like synth line, a spindly, walking-pace beat and what sounds like a computer game simulation of a gunshot to reveal what feels like a pretty singular compositional sense.
Stream: Durban, "DIRRRT"
