November: 7 bass releases you need to hear this month

TSVI 'Sacred Drums' (Nervous Horizon)

TSVI is an Italian producer currently living in London and is also the co-founder of the Nervous Horizon label and party, which has been going strong since 2015. But the strongest vibe one gets from his new EP ‘Sacred Drums’ is that he probably listens to a lot of gqom, the darker offshoot of South African house from Durban. Popular knowledge of gqom was aided in no small part by the label Gqom Oh!, run by another Italian, Nan Kolè. It’s a safe bet, then, to assume that the two of them know each other, especially as Kolè has already released collaborative tracks with the other Nervous Horizon founder, Wallwork. Gqom as a genre is fairly skeletal stuff, and TSVI strips it down another notch; as the title suggests, his primary focus is on the funky drums. But he also uses a lot of the kinds of small samples that you’ll hear in gqom, such as animal calls or tribal vocal fragments. As TSVI isn’t actually from Durban, it doesn’t sound exactly the same – the chugging rhythm in opener ‘The Healer’, for example, is slightly too militant, while second track ‘Darabukka’ incorporates a kuduro-esque synth-line – but this release clearly aims to sit in the same sphere, even if the accompanying press release never uses the actual word itself.

8/10