New Strict Face – “Highbury Skyline”

“Highbury Skyline”, the b-side of Strict Face‘s new release on Mr. Mitch‘s Gobstopper Records, has been floating around the Rinse.FM universe for some time now, but that doesn’t mean that the Australian producer’s most high-profile release to date is any less profound. Along with a-side “Fountains” (peep after the jump), the single sees Strict Face expounding upon an eski sound palette and utilizing melodramatic pads for an orchestral effect. Whereas “Fountains” falls more into the devil mix category touched on by contemporaries Visionist, Rabit and Logos, “Highbury Skyline” is exactly the type of song that critics refer to as the new wave of grime. More specifically, “Highbury Skyline” isn’t really grime at all. It’s a hybrid along the lines of Mssingno’s self-titled EP and Nguzunguzu’s latest Skycell EP, an entity that looks and sounds like grime, but doesn’t act like it. Fountains/Highbury Skyline is out now on Gobstopper.