It’s not like Eliminate hasn’t been producing since Reload, his last solo EP on Disciple Recordings released back in May of last year. The LA-based dubstep artist has done tracks for compilations on Dim Mak and Disciple, he’s done remixes for WAKAAN and Quality Goods and he’s collaborated with everyone from Hydraulix to Flux Pavilion on tracks on Mad Decent, Circus and Never Say Die. He’s become a label hopper, this Eliminate, but somehow he’s found time to come back to Disciple with his new Cyber Whale EP.
Cyber Whale was just released yesterday, March 13, on Disciple and it’s an interesting ride. There’s certainly no dearth of classic Eliminate dubstep flavor, with lots of ravey drops and laser beam synths. It seems, however, that experimenting with other artists has also had Eliminate thinking outside his own box on these tracks.
The EP opens with its title track, which has a beautiful female vocal melody in the intro and at the break and also has a nice cinematic, almost ambient build before a really hard drop into the heavy dubstep beat. The synths are some sort of distorted sonar-like bubble sounds; if Eliminate wanted the synths in “Cyber Whale” to mimic what an actual cyborg whale might sound like, he nailed it. The next track, “I’ll Be There,” is also a healthy mix of dancefloor dubstep and genre-bending surprise, with an amen’y breakbeat intro and the afore-mentioned sonic equivalent of a laser light show.
“Them” featuring Virus Syndicate on vocals is a surprisingly smooth melding of hip-hop, trap and dubstep, while “Weeble Wobble” is a definite rave throwback that the listener will think is a full departure from dubstep into techno house until the song is mostly over. The album closes with “Running,” which is heavily tinged once again with hip hop and trap and even some R&B vocals before Eliminate drops the track into some OG rave dubstep madness with definite nods to his recent collab with Flux Pavilion.
It’s always nice to see what an artist will bring back to a solo EP after doing a lot of collabs. In Eliminate’s case, working with so many iconic artists in the latter part of 2018 has only served to strengthen his core sound while also giving him some great ideas do diversify his dubstep portfolio. If Cyber Whale is an indication of where Eliminate’s sound is heading in the future, the scene will likely be happy to come along with him.
Cyber Whale is out now on Disciple. It’s available to stream on Spotify or to purchase on Beatport.