Let the Night Roar

Album Review

King Cannibal is an alternate alias for Dylan Richards, who also works on the U.K. electronic scene as Zilla. This album, which follows several 12" singles, mixes jungle, drum 'n' bass, and dubstep into a roaring, booming storm of thunderous beats, internal-organ-shifting bass sounds, and horror movie dialogue samples. The cumulative effect isn't that different from stuff a lot of other producers in this genre have been doing, from Witchman in the '90s to Kode9 or Kevin Martin in the 2000s. But as with techno or most other electronic subgenres, individual creativity is only part of the equation — producers and performers are always contributing to an overall discourse, creating tracks destined to be mixed and beat-matched by DJs. This album's merits as an album (and it has them) are secondary to its utility as fodder for late-night mixes. That being said, it does hold up as a discrete listening experience. Richards' drum programming doesn't have the assaultive harshness of Martin's work, and his melodies, such as they are, lack the woozy, soporific drag of Kode9's dubstep trances, but his music does quite ably create visions of late-night alleys and rainy streets filled with threat and promise, which seems to be the point of this branch of U.K. dance music. Dystopianism, coupled with a portrayal of African-diaspora culture as both mystical and perilous is the dominant mode, and a pseudonym like King Cannibal does little to dispel suspicions that there's some racial projection going on. But as music, it definitely has its pleasures.