If you’ve ever liked raving and misbehaving (post 1999) then you will probably have heard of Redlight.
Known as a producer of quirky club music, the Bristol-raised, London-based producer has stepped away from his previous sound to deliver a bassline driven debut album: X Colour.
The album is full of constant changes: an intro track eases in the listener and builds to the bass orientated house track ‘Gold Teeth’. It then unexpectedly shifts to the more radio friendly tropical house production of ‘Shine’. ‘Lion Jungle’ embraces tribal sounding percussion and ‘Threshold’ could go anywhere when the opening strings start before Melisa Whiskey’s vocal “no need to question our connection” kicks in with the bass.
Redlight features various vocalists (Mobb Deep’s Prodigy, Roses Gabor, ASTR) in what appears to be an attempt to create an eclectic album. He is a producer who is trying to move away from what is expected and create an album that isn’t only suited to clubs. It is clear he has been influenced by garage, hip-hop and house (and mashing up these genres in an attempt to create something new – possibly influenced by early jungle records that appeared to do this almost effortlessly). However, it is hard to tell whether Redlight is simply expanding creatively or whether he is motivated by creating a more diverse album to target a wider audience.
Either way, Redlight’s various musical explorations on X Colour means that you’ll quickly find tracks you love, but may just as quickly cast the rest aside.
