Available on: Punch Drunk 12″

As dubstep leaps far and beyond its original home and place, its preoccupation with dub and spirituality is arguably lost as each new generation of producers fuss over getting the most airtight, techy productions or the “filthiest” midrange bass wobbles. That’s not to say that it’s completely gone; recent hubbub surrounding Digital Mystikz’ Return II Space triple-pack suggests there is still interest in the old guard.  Bristol seems a particular hotbed for the stuff, with dub and related music deeply embedded into the city’s fabric.

One of Bristol’s crown jewels, every Peverelist release is an event, and he provides the latest on his own unparalleled Punch Drunk label. Simply one of the best dubstep twelves of the year, ‘Better Ways Of Living’ is the smartest thing to emerge from the label since the same man’s 2009 single ‘Click Clunk Every Trip.’

In a nutshell, Peverelist has one of the most quietly innovative styles in bass music; he folds techno into his music in a silent way, embedded in its stony austerity and general air of extreme reduction. Reduction as opposed to minimalism: Tom Ford’s tracks are far from clinical or spare. They quiver with a rubbery looseness and a penchant for percussive embellishment that often ends in unexpected outbursts and flourishes.

A beast of an A-side, ‘Better Ways Of Living’ rises with rickety drums that bounce between channels as Peverelist piles on layers so delicately that you can’t even really tell when they come in – they just appear. As ‘Living builds it begins to levitate, sending out jumpy feelers as a loopy riff encircles it. The drums turn monotonous as if glitching, frozen in time, deconstructing oxygen and building an immense pressure that seems to slice right through the riff itself, only returning to normal as the hammering fades into the background. Coming back to Earth, Ford slowly dismantles his creation as the drums beat on in some pseudo-tribal worship until it simply vanishes.

On the other hand, B-side ‘Fighting Without Fighting’ is one of the most extreme tracks Pev has built in his short career. An unstable bass riff on the verge of collapsing into itself constantly shakes the foundations as drums rattle and reverberate uncontrollably amidst the quaking. It’s a measured chaos, wild drums forming an elliptical pattern and a shaky organ attempting to add some gravitas (or maybe just foundational stability) to the track, but it ends up making everything sound that much more askew – in Peverelist’s world, tones don’t create harmonies, they create discord. It’s the pleasure that can be found in that discord that betrays the true genius of this unparalleled producer – the only contemporary of his that can bury as much meaning into a single drum hit or bass note is Mala, but Tom Ford has surpassed even him with this one.

Andrew Ryce