Masterful London Producer MssingNo Returns With the ‘Fones’ EP on XL Recordings
Image via XL Recordings
No one sounds like MssingNo. After the incredible success and underground popularity of his self-titled debut EP, many producers on SoundCloud have tried to imitate his blend of vivid synths and pitch-shifted vocal samples, but no one comes close. The EP highlight “XE2,” along with the brilliant “Skeezers” and equally mesmerizing “XE3,” are rich with emotion and full of energy, twinkling invitations to dance in smoky rooms under flashing lights.
Since that 2013 debut EP, new MssingNo material has been slow to surface—there have been remixes, collaborations, and a track on XL Recordings’ Chapter VI compilation, but no new projects from the London-based producer. Now, just over a month into 2016, MssingNo’s second EP is here, and, considering the ridiculous number of times I’ve listened to his first EP, I couldn’t be any happier.
Fones, is (after a couple of listens) more of MssingNo doing what he does best, flipping R&B samples and presenting them in a new way, over shapeshifting drum patterns and brilliantly designed walls of crystalline synth melodies. Opener “Death” brings some edginess to proceedings, more frantic chase than blunted post-club haze, then “Fones” slows things down and smooths them out. “Inta” appeared on the XL Recordings compilation, while “Scope” starts with bells that hark back to the opening of “XE2.”
Hopefully we won’t have to wait over two years for another project, and fingers crossed we hear a lot more from MssingNo this year, whether it’s producing for rappers (he worked on K9’s Mad In The Cut mixtape in 2014, but I’d love to hear him working with some US rappers a la Hudson Mohawke) or on his own releases.
The Fones EP is released today via XL Recordings, listen below and buy here.
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