Grime. Even the name of the genre is ugly. It brings to mind decaying and forgotten concrete jungles with no hope, everything grey and forlorn.
But the reality is different. There’s a vibrancy to the scene, and sometimes a sort of gritty post-industrial beauty too. Ruff Squad, for example, used a lot of startlingly touching instrumentals on their tracks.
“Ghetto Kyote” is an instantly recognisable anthem to many who follow or have followed Grime music. From a collection of distorted, lo-fi samples, Treble Clef creates a haunting beat, with a piercing flute-y sino-grime synth, a minimalist beat, and only one other synth apart from the bass.
It’s one of the best examples of Grime producers creating songs that are far greater than the sum of their parts.
The song was released first as a limited white label in 2005 under the Kamikaze crew name, then saw a bigger release with Kano and Katie Pearl vocalling it in 2006. Treble Clef’s bandcamp page says it was first released 2004 so it was probably floating around for a bit beforehand as a dubplate.
The vinyl saw a reissue in 2014 but is still very much a prized record.
Matchless in its class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU2dLHrpOlY