(Botchit and Scarper)

As one half of 2Sinners along with Carl Hovland, Klaus ‘Heavyweight’ Hill has released productions on TCR and Ministry of Sound as well as working on remixes for the likes of UNKLE, Jakatta and Soul of Man.

During the last 12 months Hill has also apparently been holed up in his London studio completing his debut solo artist album, to be released later in 2004 on Tayo’s MOB Records label. In the meantime though, he’s managed to get a couple of early tastes of what he’s working on out through prolific UK breaks stalwarts Botchit and Scarper.

‘Big Man’ recently featured on Danny McMillan’s ‘Inflight Sessions 2’ mix CD, and is a spacious atmospheric track that builds slowly from an almost ambient intro, then suddenly drops tough beats straight into the rolling epic and brooding pads. Despite the driving tempo and electrofunk bassline, there’s an almost floaty ethereal minimalism going on here that slowly builds over ‘Big Man’s’ epic nine minutes, reminiscent of Jason Sparks’ moody Botchit classic ‘Left To Live For.’ Don’t expect explosions and pyrotechnics perhaps, but this is a gorgeous groover that builds and builds.

Flipside track ‘Stoned Feet’ opens with distorted synth stabs and an almost scifi soundtrack feel before the groove locks in to create a dense robofunk track far less subliminal than this 12”s A-side. Halfway through it all breaks down into what almost sounds like retro rave stabs, before the ominous droning background drags proceedings firmly back into pop and lock territory. Epic ambient breaks minimalism for cyborgs.