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Grime Down Under: Listen to "Fountains/Highbury Skyline," a New EP from Strict Face

This isn't the stuff on your dad's bike chain.

This isn't your dad's grime. I mean, your dad's grime is probably the sticky stuff on his bike chain, unless you're an incredibly wavy little kid in South London. Whatever, my point is that the last few years have seen an explosion of instrumental grime from around the world. I don't mean to sell short the genius of the original dons—rather, the new wave employ the sonic palette of their forebears to push new extremes of maximalism and scarcity, regardless of geography. Case in point: Strict Face, who hails from Adelaide, Australia. His latest EP comes out today on Gobstopper—its negative space and towering synths sound like a choir in a church for non-carbon based lifeforms. Read our Q+A and listen to "Fountains/Highbury Skyline" below, and cop the EP on [Boomkat](http:// http://boomkat.com/downloads/960811-strict-face-fountains-highbury-skyline) or iTunes.

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How did you first encounter grime?

I first became aware of it in 2003, through surfing MP3 blogs as a bored tween living in the Philippines and came across Dizzee, Wiley, Kano, Lady Sov and the Ruff Sqwad… basically the "entry level", popular stuff. I didn't start getting into it properly until my final year of high-school in 2010, when I first came across Night Slugs and started tuning in to shows on Rinse and it started connecting itself to other genres I'd listened to more voraciously in the past.

What kind of scene is there in Australia?

It's actually a bit more active than some people think. Of course we got the producers—mad love to Juzlo, Arctic, Dellity, Mike Midnight, Runner and Sports every time. And there are DJs in Australia who rep the genre somewhat regularly—big up Skippy, Dubrat, Griff, the Deadweight! crew, Percy Miracles, Affiks, Alaska, Baddums and probably a ton more Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth dudes I've missed—but Melbourne and Sydney have it closest in terms of a proper scene when it comes to MCs and raves. I mean, Juzlo, who's from Sydney, and his Reload gang put on raves regularly and Arctic, from Melbourne, does a fair few raves/radio sets with Fraksha and his Smash Brothers crew, so it's not like it's purely an "instrumental" thing.

What's a record you can play out that will always set it off?

When I played "Pull Up Dat" by DJ Mondie at the last show I did, that got a rewind, so I'll go with that.

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What's the most played song on your iTunes?

28 plays of "Somebody Else" by Tink, apparently. Mind you, I cleared my playcount not too long ago.

What kind of images or aesthetic do you associate with your own production?

It depends on the tune, really. I guess statues, exquisite buildings and unconventional or isolated spaces feature quite heavily though.

What's your favorite non-musical sound?

At the moment? It's a three-way between the hissing sound you get when you open a bottle of soda, the sound that Serato scratch vinyl makes when you pull a reverse platter stop—instead of it gradually fading out when you do it to a normal 12" record, the Serato vinyl just squelches and comes to an abrupt halt—and loon calls.

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Ezra Marcus is on Twitter—@Ezra_marc