Review: Big Miz – Midnight Man Handle

Glasgow-based label Dixon Avenue Basement Jams likes to keep things simple. From the artists they welcome to the music they release, there is a no-nonsense Buckfast attitude about label heads Dan Monox and The Wasp. Importantly, they have a knack for uncovering young talent, having previously brought through the likes of Marquis Hawkes and Denis Sulta, and this debut release from Big Miz is no buck to that trend.

Opener Good Thing doesn’t waste time dressing up a female vocal until it explodes into a tour de force of sass, propped up by rolling bass and electric jitters of synths. "I don’t play around with girls like that" is defiantly declared before romping off into a confident swagger. Expect many a dancefloor to jerk it out.

Electrolites is another demonstration that Big Miz means business, purely adding to this beefed up bulldozer of an A-side. Borrowing James Brown’s sermon about woman being essential to man, the synth line that erupts after the climax is impossible to trace into any repeated pattern, before being replaced by equally unpredictable cowbells. To have two such compelling peak time slammers on one side is a rarity, but something DJs will no doubt savour.

On the flip side, there’s not much respite as Solange slams and jacks too, adding a dash of acid to the equation for a relentless march to the finishing line. Ending as boldly as you like, Wurx (Live Jam) serves up a final scramble of hooks and hi-hats, firmly rooted in the raw sound that’s been emanating from these shores for a while now. As the label puts it, it’s ‘real rockin raw shit from the streets for the clubs’.

While the EP’s energetic delivery is definitely suggestive of the producer’s youth, the functional musical ideas perhaps emphasise that this is someone at the start of their creative passage. But don’t be fooled by the name – this Big Miz debut is definitely a big hit.