Crewdson is from London, which, in 2010, exists as much a floating musical idea as a capital city. Other locations have had their moments—Organized Noize-style hip-hop in Atlanta, Brazil as an altogether producer of humid tropicalia, for example—but with such a slush of music-making in modern times, it's unlikely for one place to seize on one sound. This is a reductive generalization, of course, but across genres, what seems to be happening to London music is a stylish despondence. Esben and the Witch Kwes, Mount Kimbie, The XX, James Blake, Wild Beasts, Laura Marling, Ikonika, Foals, etc. All are tinged with a bit of the same melancholy. We understand Tinchy Strider or Crazy Counsinz aren't bummer jams, but we bet they feel it too, a droplet of electronic haywire running out the speakers. Electronic producer and friend of Matthew Herbert, Crewdson has chosen to scramble his song "Mime" into something post- post- something. There's a disembodied voice kicking around the sound of a hundred cassette decks unspooling at once. But he's got a beat to counteract, tiny percussion and a broken snare, as though he's throwing the literal kitchen sink full of instrument junk at our stupid American desire to box him in.
Download: Crewdson, "Mime"