Terror Danjah: Undeniable (Hyperdub HDB007)
Terror Danjah has always stood out from his peers. His track Poltergeist encapsulated everything that was great about grime back in 2004. It was raw, kinetic and odd. It was the sound of grime maturing from post garage mutation into a genre in its own right. It was music clearly made on its own terms and it was, to lazily use this album’s title, undeniable.
Grime, more recently, has become somewhat fractured and far less compelling. While many key exponents abandoned ship to pursue something more lucratively popular, Terror Danjah remained true to, what might be called the grime aesthetic and the niche within it his own productions, alongside work by Wiley, Danny Weed, Target and Ruff Squad et al carved. But he in particular put down the foundations for what we can still hear today in the ‘Purple’ sound of Joker, Gemmy and Guido. Vivid synaesthesia sonics; synths spouting colour as audible luminescent and lurid metaphors.
Indeed, there is a strong visual aspect to his sound. I’ve always thought of Terror Danjah tracks as mini audio cartoons, always vibrant and playful. This is of course facilitated by his use of trademark ear worms; the gremlin giggle, the swooshes, as well as the masterful synthplay (as exemplarily executed on ‘Acid’). These not only make his tracks unmistakeably Terror Danjah, but also add a nice narrative thread. Like these sounds are all conversing within the tracks. Like each track tells of a different encounter between these characters.
Sadly the majority of vocal tracks contained on Undeniable aren’t as strong as the instrumentals behind them. In ‘old grime’ MCs embellished the tracks. In ‘new grime’, as good as Terror Danjah’s, I guess they largely detract. They are at times a little cheesy, overly produced and fundamentally don’t add anything to the music. This is a shame because I feel that if Terror Danjah was to produce an entirely instrumental album, without the vocal concessions, it would be a much better record.
That said, it is pleasant to hear Bruza’s indomitable tones over a strong Danjah beat on Leave Me Alone, throwing back to some of his best work at the helm of the Aftershock crew. D Double E makes an appearance on the title track and, while it is not vintage D Double, his peculiar timbre works well over Danjah’s sound palate.
The best thing about this album is, however, the entirely noticeable development of Terror Danjah’s unique production style. He injects recent influences, not least the groove and roll of funky and post dubstep, and marries them with his signature style. The tracks that switch in and out of a 4x4 stomp are wonderfully futuristic and especially technically accomplished; a total flip of Lil Silva’s grime house sound yet totally comparable. For instance the track ‘S.O.S’, the standout track here, all eight minutes, six seconds of it, is epic future music.
Dubstep’s trajectory somewhat stifled grime, it created a forced hiatus where creativity struggled and producers changed tact. But Terror Danjah remained unsuppressed and this record is testament to his creativity and forward thinking. Which, is largely why it has found it’s home on Hyperdub. But perhaps it is not right at all to frame this record within grime or dubstep, as Terror Danjah is irrefutably one of his generation’s most consistently fascinating and outrageously creative producers. I’d argue that Terror Danjah could have made a better long player back in 2004 but that would undermine the genuine work of brilliance Undeniable is. Instrumentally at least.
