Beat of the Drum

Church is a much respected London party that invites the likes of Juan Atkins, Darling Farah, Marcellus Pittman and other such underground heavyweights to their events, and have done for 18 months. Now well established, founders Seb Wildblood & Apes are taking the next step and launching a label of the same name after dipping their toe in the release arena with a Lorca white label, 'Faith Evans Refix' which was out in late September.

This release comes from an eye watering young talent, Happa, who at 15 years old has a mature and unique sound that belies his years and has already picked up props from Skream, Four Tet, Loefah, The XX, Nicholas Jaar and more. Here backed up with remixes from Left Blank and Snowfall experimenter Throwing Snow plus Apes & Seb Wildblood, it's a dazzling debut package indeed.

Based in Leeds, Happa's sound is an exuberant melange of styles as evidenced by A side 'Beat of The Drum'. In place of rigid beat frameworks are lurching drums, blasts of grumbling sub and the infectious clatter of rising and falling percussion lines. Sharp, clean and with plenty of snap, they tug the track in all directions as the odd vocal cries echoes in the tumult left behind.

Throwing Snow's remix may surprise some - it's an unashamedly juke inspired remix where pinging bass notes dart about under high speed claps. When it drops and the bass drills proper, the patchwork of sounds coalesces into a bristling cloud of energy that you simply cant ignore.

Happa's other original, 'Bring It Back' is a rude boy jam and no mistake. Ghetto bass, slapping snares and claps all sound too alive to have been sequenced in a PC - they have a life of their own, as do the various low end wobbles and synth smears which colour the rest of the track. Kinetic and lively, bristling and brimming, it's a track that will fire your every synapse.

The same track is in the hand of Apes & Seb Wildblood (residents and founders of Church, here making something of a production debut but already well regarded DJs in their own right) is stripped of some of the clutter and made deep and more human thanks to the bouncy chord stabs and undulating form of the arrangement overall. A quick fire, hard hitting package, then, that will no doubt bring much attention on both Church and Happa, right from the off.