Intense Records

The Poems We Write For Ourselves

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£24.16 (£28.99 incl. VAT)

With a clutch of EPs under his belt spanning a wealth of pallets, Henzo narrows the focus on his debut studio album The Poems We Write For Ourselves - a culmination of persistent iterations over several years, distilling his sonic milieu into something that feels decidedly his own. The album proper is coupled with a debut live performance which reinterprets the tracks and splices them with omitted material from the time of writing - recorded in full in the intimate confines of Manchesters growingly infamous Stage and Radio basement. Honing his craft in the shadows of Lancashire, Poems is an expansive reflection of the producers time spent away committing to the scope of an LP.

A thread of stratified sound design weaves throughout the record, but with a discerning dancefloor proclivity mostly prevalent. Cold opener Noggin riffs on noughties Raster-Noton a la Byetone rebuilt with fractal tear out DnB, with closer Indulgence following suit on a puckered plod of Dub Techno ambience. More club-focussed moments come in the form of Rustica Slump and Blue Will..., the formers sickly sweet vocals resolved by the latters stoic UKG/Techno rudeness. A Bouquet of Clumsy Words channels mechanical shuffle with a stripped back 2/4 pulse whilst maintaining a firmly FWD>>energy alongside Plant Your Roots In Me on a similar vector - swapping out a straight kick pattern for a bludgeoning 808 assault on an early Hessle-indebted tip.

Take Stock, Touch Grass harks to golden era ClekClekBoom and Night Slugs with a bare bones kick and vocal motif, updating the formula with a tweaking lead line that places it firmly in the contemporary space. Swell:Shrink sings from the same sheet with a shrieking, space age wobble doing the heavy lifting, knocking the pace back to a shoulder-lean swagger on a slow fast conundrum Henzo has shown his flair for on previous releases.

The outliers to Henzos more known approach, Worm Grunting with Belfasts Emby, an amalgamation of halfest time DnB and illest mannered Road Rap, plus The Rest Is The Mess You Leave, a starkly anti-retro Ghettotek endeavour, give grounds to the LP. Clearly rooted in the comfortable universe of the dancefloor, these tracks expand the producers realm into loftier heights as he graduates into long play land.

a1. Noggin
a2. Take Stock, Touch Grass
a3. Worm Grunting (feat. Emby)
b1. A Bouquet of Clumsy Words
b2. Plant Your Roots In Me
c1. Swell:Shrink
c2. The Rest Is The Mess You Leave
d1. Rustica Slump
d2. Blue Will Blue Me Blue
d3. Indulgence