Tshepo Mokoena 

Rustie: Green Language review – brilliantly varied, futuristic electronica

Rustie's second full-length is an exercise in variety that pushes the boundaries of what a synth-driven album can be, writes Tshepo Mokoena
  
  

Rustie
In a space of his own … Rustie. Photograph: Timothy Saccenti Photograph: Timothy Saccenti/PR

Glaswegian producer Russell "Rustie" Whyte has firmly staked his place in the maximalist electronic music world. His debut Glass Swords nabbed the Guardian's first album award in 2012, and on Green Language he careens through a collection of Nintendo-sound bloops and screeches that cascade over bass-heavy hooks. the single Attak, featuring nasal-voiced rapper Danny Brown, whoops like a siren before dropping into a skull-shaking dancefloor filler with elements of trap and bounce. Rustie switches tack on futuristic instrumentals Workship, Tempest and Let's Spiral, sounding like M83 scoring a sci-fi film's opening credits. When he flips into R&B mode on Dream On, or evokes Daft Punk with producer Redinho's help on Lost, Rustie sounds just as comfortable. Green Language is an exercise in variety that pushes the boundaries of what a synth-driven album can, and should, sound like. At a time when fellow Scots Hudson Mohawke, Calvin Harris and Jackmaster are making names for themselves across electronic music genres, Rustie's sitting in a space that's all his own.

 

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