New Yamaneko – “Calotype Process”

If you’ve been following the Boxed massive on social media, listened in to any of the crew’s recent Rinse show, or attended one of their eponymous club nights in London, Yamaneko is likely household name; for everyone else, the London producer is a tantalizing obscure figure. Drawing on new age meditation music, grime-but-not-grime samples and a vivid spatial awareness, Yamaneko’s debut release, the Pixel Wave Embrace LP, has garnered support from a who’s who of prominent Anglophiles on either side of the Atlantic. Pixel Wave Embrace is also a Local Action release, a somewhat surprising step for Tom Lea’s dancefloor-centric (see: Finn, DJ Q, T.Williams) imprint, but one that fits in with the previous narrative established by Lil Jabba‘s Scales, Slackk‘s Palm Tree Fire and Shriekin‘s Gold And Featherwork. “Calotype Process” exhibits the beatific prowess of Yamaneko’s work, a punchy, bewilderingly flat reinterpretation/conflagration of Wiley’s respective eskibeat and devil mix styles, arguably his two longest lasting production innovations. Pixel Wave Embrace will be released in MP3 and cassette form on November 24 and can be pre-ordered here.