Zomby burst onto the scene in 2008 with a series of inventive singles and a mixtape/album that sampled Gucci Mane and Aaliyah into earworm rave. He seemed at the time capable of expanding the borders of bass music, a maverick in a scene where progress is still regarded as hugely important. Things haven't quite turned out that way. As peers like Burial, Rustie, and Pearson Sound have added their styles to an impressive history of U.K. electronic music (referred to as the "hardcore continuum" by journalist Simon Reynolds) Zomby has retreated into the canon, dragging up the bits-- grime's arcane melodic sense, U.K. Garage's shifty rhythms, dubstep's disorientation-- that best promote a perverse, personal history. Put more simply, Zomby likes to play progressive, but he's a synthesist at heart.
Never has this been more apparent than on Zomby's third album (and second for 4AD), With Love. A two-disc set of short, nimble tracks loosely divided by attitude ("tough" on disc one, "contemplative" on disc two), With Love is an abundance, an unabashed display of affection for that continuum. The execution is still very much Zomby: With Love veers sharply from rhythmic duress to stoned calm. For an immersion experience, it's reckless and inattentive.
Complicating matters, the album offers few signposts. Zomby still works with vocals, but they're less intrusive than on past albums. Even the requisite 90s R&B sample-- this from Brandy & Monica's 1998 hit, "The Boy Is Mine"-- is played with more subtlety than in the past. On "The Things You Do" and "If I Will", mangled vocal snippets are masterfully woven into the track's tapestry. There's no Panda Bear collaboration or Gucci Mane remix to peg, and the result is a long, even run of tracks that allows Zomby to hide beautiful, idiosyncratic moments in his thickets of rhythm. "Isis"' gentle, walking bassline and "I Saw Golden Light"'s brassy malevolence pass quickly and without pretense, offering their wares and then bowing to the next track.
Zomby continues to show no interest in fleshing out his ideas, but there's a pleasing efficiency to the way With Love's tracks move in and out of melodic phrases. His particular combination of dulcet synth tones and creeping leads tattoo these tracks, and his sense of rhythm stirs those ideas into hypnotic vignettes. With Love is less expansive than Zomby's early work; he's traded invention for the opportunity to explore every nook and cranny of his humid rhythm mazes. Like simple puzzles, the process and order of With Love transfix long after novelty has worn off.
Just as Where Were U in '92 played like a more vibrant and modern version of early 90s rave and hardcore, With Love offers a necessary sonic update on its inspirations. Drum & bass plays an increased role (Zomby also wonders where you were in 95), allowing Zomby to run stormy drum attacks like "It's Time" full-stop into creeping symphonic pieces. The album snaps on a good system, its depth charge bass anchoring hopscotch leads and tittering hi-hats. Considering that so much of what Zomby draws on was made on cheap computers with limited software, the comparative sonic richness of With Love's music is key. At times the album plays like an extended attempt to upgrade the haphazard majesty of white label grime tracks like DJ XTC's "Functions on the Low". Replacing a bleating, synthesized horn with a more harmonically complex tone separates Zomby from his source material, spiritually-- those shitty sounds were part of the appeal-- but also offers a crucial twist. With Love is reverent displacement: U.K. street music re-imagined as luxury.
With Love's short, baroque tracks balance its overall largesse, leaving a purpled, blunted ambience. Zomby's sense of melody and tone is distinct enough that, intentional or not, it feels like motifs and phrases are repeated and expanded upon throughout. Zomby accomplishes this despite his abrasive sequencing, cramming discordant pieces next to one another. With Love is like a pocket book of poetry, a series of short thoughts only tangentially related. Zomby is the elegant menace, capable of beauty and great affect but too stoned or disinterested to fully commit. The tension between Zomby's adoration for his heroes and his aberrant creativity fuels With Love, less a homage to the past than an intensification of it.
