Jamie Teasdale, a.k.a. Kuedo, was doing dubstep way before everyone started to pretend that James Blake had invented the genre. Now the former V’exd member has stepped out and taken dubstep to a new world, a new planet even, in a science fiction inspired epic that is simply astonishing.
1. Visioning Shared Tomorrows
2. Ant City
3. Whisper Fate
4. Onset (Escapism)
5. Scissors
6. Truth Flood
7. Reality Drift
8. Ascension Phase
9. Salt Lake Cuts
10. Seeing The Edges
11. Flight Path
12. Shutter Light Girl
13. Vectoral
14. As We Lie Promising
15. Memory Rain
There is no point wasting anyone’s time, this album is stunning. It’s as simple as that. Severant, as you will soon hear, is heavily influenced by Blade Runner and the sublime beauty of the Vangelis soundtrack that accompanied it. ” I wanted to capture a really futurist sentiment, kind of melancholy and grand luminescent, so I used the instrument that most evokes that for me – that sweeping Vangelis brass sound”, he explains. He nailed it. Like the staccato drums, the brass is almost ubiquitous throughout, swirling and swooping through your ears.
You cannot listen to Severant without being transported to some dark, dystopian future. It consumes you, close your eyes and you can see the spacecraft cruising above the gargantuan, neon encrusted skyscrapers, all while the rain teems down around you. It’s like someone has taken a William Gibson novel and turned it into music, even the track names are like chapter titles.
Vangelis may be the predominant influence, but there are others. Jazz, hip-hop, drum and bass, UK road rap; all have been taken in, broken down and reconstructed to create dazzling, multi-layered soundscapes. When you’re not staring at this wondrous megalopolis you have been transported to, your head will be nodding, the beat taking you round the corner to the next delight.
There is a lot of synth music in the UK right now, there is a lot of dubstep in the UK as well; none of it sounds like this. Nothing even comes close to sounding as intelligent or as complete as this. You could quite easily find yourself lost in Kuedo’s world for quite some time; it’s a great place to be.
Severant is released today on Planet Mu.
Alphabet Bands 
you’re so right!! I imagined a Sarah Conner monologue then Ant City kicks in…(Terminator was my moody post-apocalyptic sci fi movie of choice in my head, dont remember blade runner so well!)