Alix Perez has spent the best part of a decade turning 1985 Music into the beating heart of drum & bass’s deep and minimal underground, a label whose releases favour weight and space over spectacle. Burning Babylon is his brand new solo single for the imprint—a standalone cut that arrives with minimal fanfare and lets its sub-bass do the talking.
The track wastes no time establishing its mood. A hazy, tape-worn vocal chant drifts through the intro, smothered in delay and reverb, before a sparse, dusty kick and a rolling sub bass lock into a low-slung groove. The arrangement is a study in restraint: rim shots and ghostly percussion are rationed out across the four minutes and fifty-three seconds, the bassline doing the heavy lifting whilst the drums sway at half-time. There’s a distinctly dubwise character to the whole thing—the echoes and open spaces nodding to the reggae heritage that has always run through the deeper corners of the genre.
It’s a sound Perez has been honing since long before 1985 existed, and Burning Babylon sits neatly alongside the deepest cuts of his catalogue—the head-nodding restraint of his Eleven album, the sparse collaborations that peppered his 2010s output. What’s most striking is how little the track needs: no drop designed for the rave, no melodic hook to latch onto, just a groove so firmly weighted it feels like the room is leaning into it.
As a statement of intent from the label’s figurehead, Burning Babylon is quietly excellent. It isn’t the single that will convert the unconverted, but it doesn’t need to be—for those who live in the deep end, it’s a reminder that no one works this territory with more authority. Played loud, it does exactly what it sets out to do.
