Tim Reaper - World’S End Tim Reaper

Tim Reaper, a key player in Jungle’s new wave of producers, is back on Hyperdub with his debut solo album “World's End” - hard to believe considering how much music he has produced, released and facilitated through his label Future Retro over the last few years. It follows ‘In Full Effect’, his 2024 collaborative LP with Australian producer Kloke. “Worlds End” refreshes and updates his sound for 2027, building on experiments from his 2024 “Scorched Earth” EP. He described how that earlier release ‘was inspired by a conversation I had with a mate where he was asking how I define "Jungle” - and for me, Jungle is mainly about the breakbeats and the tempo, but it could have anything else going on within that template. The realisation made me want to challenge myself to try and bring in newer, lesser referenced sounds.’ “World’s End” stays true to that open definition of Jungle, recalibrating the new with the old, a rhythmachine for processing the present. Opening with the jubilant rollage of chopped marching band samples on “Roll Call”, the album gets deeper, heavier and darker as it unfurls, drawing fragments of gqom’s atmospheric tension, footwork’s bouncy kicks, drill’s sinuous, warped basslines, the distortion and riffage of rage rap and techno’s synthscapes into its omnivorous breakbeat whirlpool.

It’s a bruising ride that waxes and wanes as Tim charts his path forward.