Young Echo's Zhou plant a 'Locust Tree' for Punch Drunk on new single

After a year off, Zhou are back with a new disc of carefully wrought dubstep with ambient leanings.

Cris Ebdon and Amos Childs are, like Vessel and Kahn, central players in Bristol’s charmed Young Echo collective. They debuted in 2011 with ‘Tremble’ / ‘Release Me’, a collaborative effort with Vessel for Astro:Dynamics. Their first physical release – heavy-hearted shuffler ‘I Remain’ – subsequently arrived on Peverelist’s fine Punch Drunk imprint in 2011. They’ve since limited themselves to podcasts and remixes, although Childs has kept busy making soporific song-based electronica as one half of Jabu.

The pair will break the silence with a new two-track 12″ for Punch Drunk, ‘Locust Tree’ / ‘Locust Dub’. As with Roly Porter’s recent work, the lead track investigates the point where club music intersects with ambient and modern classical – Shackleton’s brand of phantasmagoric dubstep pushed to the point of abstraction. ‘Locust Dub’, meanwhile, recasts the A-side as a more conventional dancefloor tool, although there’s still an elegant, pastoral quality at work that makes it tricky to pin down.

‘Locust Tree’ will arrive on 12″ and digital on March 4. Both tracks are available to stream below.