NME Radar Piece: Joy Orbison

A new generation of young, open-minded and musically informed producers and DJ’s including Brackles, Bok Bok and Pangea have been quietly breathing life into a dubstep scene stilted by generic, macho, mid-range basslines with more wobble than a bouncy castle for some time. Now these young whippersnappers who happily mix grime, 2-step, funky and techno without blinking have their own anthem. Joy Orbison’s “Hyph Mngo” has been universally praised, played and rewound within the scene since Hessle Audio lynchpin Ben UFO closed his Fabric Live mix with it. A perfect balance of joyous synths and warm, percussive sweeps; the track owes as much to deep house as UK garage. Joy is in fact a 22 year old from dubstep’s spiritual home of Croydon called Pete who as well as Todd Edwards lists G.G. Allin as a MySpace influence. “I was never a dubstep purist” he admits, “I’m a huge Theo Parrish fan and Carl Craig is a huge inspiration”. “Hyph Mngo” should be the sound of mine, yours and everyone else’s summer but the deafening buzz around the track remains fairly bewildering to its creator: “at the time I made it I was DJing a lot and I just wanted something to play, it was actually one of the first things I did”.