Available on: Hyperdub LP
Despite its ludicrously portentous title, Terror Danjah’s second full-length album isn’t exactly heavy on surprises: it mostly picks up where 2010′s Undeniable left off, all spidery grime rhythms and video game noises. This is apt, as it can often feel like being stuck at a certain, tail-chasing level in a game. You know there are higher levels, you can even imagine what they’re like, but you can only grab at the odd glimpse of them.
Those glimpses on The Dark Crawler come, largely, in the form of vocal collaborations. One gets the distinct impression that Terror Danjah is proud of the ‘Dark Crawler’ riddim itself – rightly so; its explosions, sirens and fanfares could have come straight out of his ‘Cock Back’ days, but this doesn’t make them any less effective. It’s reprised five times here – as an intro, an outro and three interludes showcasing various MCs. It’s a neat idea in theory; in practice Riko Dan, the first MC to take the mic, slays the track so thoroughly with his fire-and-brimstone apocalyptic preaching that every other iteration seems slightly redundant. Mayhem attempts to recreate ‘Next Hype’, and is adequate if unambitious, though Kozzie’s exclamatory verse at least matches the riddim in energy.