review
Danny Howells gives Bedrock the same math it started with
Two originals and two dubs, mirrored the way Bedrock always built a 12". This is a record for the mix, not the sofa.
deepmelodic
Bedrock's second catalog number belongs to Danny Howells. BED2 went to Science Dept, the production name Howells shared with Dick Trevor, in 2000, one release after John Digweed and Nick Muir's "Heaven Scent" opened the label. Twenty-five years on, Howells returns to the same imprint with Mama Loves You / Sister Said, out September 6, 2024, and he plays the same instinct that got him signed the first time: give the DJ two records, not one.
Four tracks, 29:41 total, split into two mirrored pairs. "Mama Loves You" runs 8:40, and it spends most of that runtime earning the vocal. The pluck builds for over two minutes before anything sings, and the vocal doesn't actually land until 2:20. That's a long wait to make a listener sit through, and the groove underneath carries it the whole way there. Nothing sags. The track hands off to its own dub companion, "Mama Dubs You," at 7:26. That's a separate title, not just a tag on the end of the first one, and it tells you Howells treats the stripped version as its own piece of work rather than an afterthought. "Sister Said" earns the same treatment at 7:21, paired with a 6:14 "Sister Said (Dub)." Every track here clears seven minutes but one. Nothing on this record ends a set. It sits inside one.
Howells' name for his own sound is deepsexyfuturistictechfunkouse. Our tests determined that was not a lie. It reads like a joke until you sit with the record. It's deep in the low end, unhurried enough to earn "sexy," current enough to earn "futuristic," and built with enough low-end tension to earn "funk." He's not wrong.
The pairing carries the whole argument. A dub exists so a DJ has somewhere to go once the vocal or the lead line has done its job and the low end still needs to run. Cut in on "Mama Dubs You" mid-mix and you haven't lost the record. You've extended it. That's a structure this label ran on in 1999, and Howells still works to it a quarter-century later.
This is also a digital-only release. Bandcamp lists it as a straight digital album with no vinyl SKU attached, on a label that pressed its founding catalog, BED1 through BED2 and on, to 12". Bedrock built its name on record shops. This one skips the pressing plant.
Howells has been plain about what the first release meant to him. Marking its anniversary, he wrote that he and Trevor, working as Science Dept, "released our first original music together, on the then brand new Bedrock label." Digweed and Muir were still pressing the label's opening run that same year. It reads less like a comeback single and more like Howells picking up a conversation with the label he helped stock before either of them had a back catalog to speak of.
That history isn't why the record works, though. It works because both pairs do the job Bedrock's early 12"s did at seven minutes a side: hand a DJ two versions of an idea and trust them to know which one the room needs. "Mama Loves You" leans on its longer runtime to let the idea sit before it moves. "Sister Said" is the tighter of the two originals, and its dub cuts nearly ninety seconds off the top — the kind of edit that earns its place instead of filling a formality. Play the originals back to back and it's two songs. Play them against their own dubs and it's four tools, cut by someone who's been making Bedrock records since before most of the label's current audience could get into the room.
Mama Loves You / Sister Said is out now via Bedrock Records. Follow Danny Howells on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and SoundCloud.