Nothing

Rocked by the deaths of his longtime collaborator The Spaceape and Hyperdub artist DJ Rashad, Kode9 turned to contemplate the void. Despite his preoccupations with absence—The Spaceape himself reappears, as ominous as ever, on the ambient sketch \"Third Ear Transmission\"—*Nothing* brims with life, from the tumbling footwork rhythms of \"Zero Work\" and \"Vacuum Packed\" to the intricate, minimalist grime of \"Wu Wei.\" As always, the Scottish producer\'s palette is unusually vivid, full of prickly hi-hats and flickering loops; \"Respirator,\" with its heaving breaths and racing pulse, is like sonic CPR.

Kode9 delivers a very sad, very compelling stare into the void with Nothing. Perhaps his most compelling work, it starts from scratch, sometimes building to footwork but often bleeding into something spare and serene. Fully crafted in the wake of his music partner Spaceape's death, there are moments of memory and beauty woven into this varied, unique album.

The dubstep kingpin and label owner has since become so much more, and his first solo release continues to warp boundaries beyond all recognition.

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Nothing, Kode9's first album since the death of his recording partner, the Spaceape, is just as dark and mournful as one would expect, but i...

Since 'nothing' can be defined, when considered as a pronoun, as an absence or lack of 'something', it's perhaps fitting to approach

Hyperdub label head Steve Goodman, who records as Kode9, is more of an electronic music experimenter than a dubstep artist.