- By the end of the '90s, Krust was "making art and not music." Alien steppers like "Warhead" turned young listeners into drum & bass devotees, but it was tracks like "Soul In Motion" that reflected Krust's expansive artistic goals. Running over ten minutes long, it's drum & bass on an epic scale, pairing inventive sound design with brutally minimal drum programming. But after a period of major label interest, Krust stepped back from the scene, finding another life in the advertising industry. We weren't expecting new material anytime soon, but even more surprising is that The Portal / Concealed Treachery, his first solo release in over a decade, is so good.
Krust masterfully builds tension on the title track. He plays with your attention in austere fashion, each sound appearing at just the right time. There's the distant burst of spacecraft thrust, which gently fades into a garble of futuristic brass. A dormant sub sporadically raises its head in a plume of sizzling overtones before making way for a satisfying synth sound that can best be described as a donk. When rippling harps and a whisper-quiet pad appear in the middle third, you don't even realise they've altered the mood. They gently lay a beautiful springboard for a Blade Runner-style lead, which casts graceful arcs across the lonely scene.
"Concealing Treachery" is just as good, coming off like a chance meeting between Christoph De Babalon and Objekt. Like the A-side, it takes place in a hyperreal synthetic world. Although the drums are more syncopated, the groove is similarly light on its feet, aquaplaning across the dance like a hydrofoil. The way the track progresses is ultra-specific, so it feels like Krust spent a lot of time working on the subtle narrative. He has called this 12-inch "the beginning of something." If he can maintain this standard, it'll be one of the strongest comebacks in drum & bass history.
TracklistA The Portal
B Concealed Treachery