The bass doesn’t arrive. It erupts – like concrete cracking under pressure, like a pulse finally unleashed after being held too long in the chest. Fabio Santos’ “Give Me Some Bassline”, the A2 track from “TSR002“”on Nijmegen’s The Set Records, is not a polite nod to the low-end – it’s a ritual, a summoning, a dirty prayer whispered directly into the subwoofers.
No buildup. No frills. No time to waste. The bassline drops in like it owns the place – thick, grimy, unapologetic – the kind of groove that lives somewhere between a warehouse and a bunker. It’s the spiritual cousin to the rough-hewn funk of Dungeon Meat or SLABS releases: that no-nonsense, sweat-on-the-ceiling strain of House that doesn’t care who’s watching, as long as your feet stay moving.
But Santos doesn’t stop at the obvious. What begins as a straight-ahead bass weapon soon twists into something stranger. Chopped, Dubstep-flavored vocals jitter around the groove like electrical sparks, while reese bass textures creep in from the periphery – not overpowering, just lurking. Then, mid-track, the whole thing snaps: the tempo fractures, and we’re flung momentarily into a Drum ’n Bass detour – blink and you’ll miss it – a tension spike that teases collapse, only to bring us crashing back into that original house groove, now even heavier from the whiplash.
There’s a kind of alchemy here – not flashy, but functional, forged for the floor. Santos manipulates tension like a sculptor shaving chaos into structure. Every sound is deliberate, every transition sharp, every drop meant to provoke movement, not applause.
“Give Me Some Bassline” doesn’t just supply the bass – it builds a whole mood around it: grimy, kinetic, and irreversibly club-focused. It’s not a track for streaming. It’s a weapon for sound systems. With “TSR002“, The Set Records continues its vinyl-only, Dutch-rooted mission to showcase emerging voices with underground intent – and Santos’ contribution may well be the one that rattles the foundations hardest.
Words by Holger Breuer
Torture the Artist 