Hybrid - 'Gravastar' / 'Celebrity Science' (Distinct'ive Breaks)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Trying to provide a fair account of a single by such intelligent dance-visionaries as Hybrid is a near enough thankless task. Slate it and more than likely you'll be accused of not seeing it in its true sense, as part of a whole DJ-set or compilation. Say it's ace, and you run into a similar problem. Yes, it's good, but surely it's even better in club? Perhaps, but seeing as clubs often have some occult-like power to make perfectly sane people believe that thoroughly bad music is utter genius, we'll reserve judgement on that one. Thankfully, on this double A-Side effort, Hybrid have made some music good enough to stand on its own two feet and dance for itself.
Opening up this strictly limited-edition affair is a dark, gorgeously menacing piece of intellectual dance called 'Gravastar'. Known for their aversion to repetitive, familiar club sounds, this is a track that certainly sees the duo of Mike Truman and Chris Healings walk it like they talk it, the twosome possessing amongst their arsenal of weapons more than an adequate musical penchant, and an undeniable knack for adding subtle melody to such elusive pieces.
'Celebrity Science' is the less instant but equally clever of the two tunes, upping the pace somewhat and playing around with ambient breakbeat before introducing some monstrous bass. Noticeably, there's an obvious playful nature about both of the throbbing refrains, but conceivably after a while their creators become too lost in the job to remember the faithful listener; and this is where the aforementioned argument comes in: on CD, for the purposes of listening pleasure, there's little need for either track to be quite so lengthy.
Even so, being introduced to such outings that are so downright listenable in the first instance ensures a welcome change. Indeed, if dance music is dead, then this is the sound of those who survived tramping the dirt down. Hybrid have learned from the mistakes made by lesser contemporaries. And they don't seem to be making too many of their own.
Artists in this article: Hybrid
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