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DJ Magazine
Uk Garage
[August/September 2004]
“Some seriously dready dubstep from Kode9 featuring some Rasta-style meditative vocals from the deeply resonant Daddi Gee. Heavily poetic with its spoken word style, lyrically this is as rolling and hypnotic as the beats. Kode9 lays down a cavernously deep rhythm track with a sonorous bassline pulse and echo chamber stabs. Like Horsepower fused with dark, dub poetry, this is pungent.”

Xlr8r (US)
Breaks/Dubstep/Grime
[April 2004]
“ ‘Spit’. . . finds Gee havin’ at Public Enemy’s ‘Welcome to the Terrordrome’ in front of kode9’s chunky, haunted skarage. Order this one up at your shops”

IDJ
Grime & Dubstep
[September 2004]
“This is the second release on Kode9’s Hyperdub imprint. Following on from the paranoid anthem of ‘Sign of the Dub’, Kode9 & Daddi G join forces again to create more futuristic dub. ‘Spit’ comes with fine intricate broken step beats backed up by smooth sub-bass and the deep, warm, skunked-out vocals of Daddi G. One for all the dub heads.”

'Sign of the Dub'/'Stalker' - HYP001
The Wire
[December 2005]
"In 1987 Prince's 'Sign O' The Times' hit like funk in excelsis, squeaky chrome-laced beats punctuating a wry but world weary, vocal drawl. It was difficult to comprehend how he could top it. He couldn't. Of maybe he didn't have to. If this awesome tune were reduced to its final recognizable essence, then that sound would be the beat. Last year Kode9 & Daddi Gee versioned this pinnacle with an audacious beatless reading, called 'Sign of the Dub', which stripped everything except the vocals. Most dubs chop the vocals from the mix; conversely this one drops the instrumentation. What remains is an isolated bass pulse, the lyric delivered zombie-like, matter of fact, without emotion. Nearly 20 years on, it opposes a stark acceptance of dissolution and desolation to the skittish wit of the original observation."


The Wire
[March 2004]
“Kode9 kicks off Hyperdub.com’s in-house label with. . .two of the darkest, most suffocating tracks ever to come out of the garage/reggae hybrid called dubstep. The entirely beatless ‘Sign of the Dub’ features Daddi Gee muttering nonsequiturs in a molasses baritone like LKJ in a K hole. His cousin lights up a spliff ‘for the very first time’ and in the next phrase is smoking rock; ‘I can’t understand when a rocket ship explode/yet everybody still want fi fly.’ For the five minute duration of the track, time effectively stops, a low bass pulse stilling your heartbeat into hibernating half-speed while pads flicker like the green flash of dusk. ‘Stalker’ is more familiar fare, laying down a swathe of spaceship hum over stop-start syncopations. But its techsteppy grimace is no less paranoid, and the periodic flare of backspinning vinyl sounds like a mind in meltdown.”

Jockey Slut
[March 2004]
Hit of the Month
[garage]
“Dance music is rife with mediocrity. Producers move in packs, as scenes evolve stepwise and dubstep is in many ways no different. Here Kode 9 uses covers to challenge that norm. Where “Stalker” was once a Junior Boys love song, he turns it to obsession, amid sparse soca-step shards. “Sign Of The Dub,” however, is truly remarkable: a beatless dub cover of the Prince classic. No percussion means no momentum: you’re immobilized by its immense bass-pulse and delayed reggae stabs. Police sirens wail into the distance while Daddi Gee growls: “Some people say/a man never truly ‘appy/unless a nex’ man/truly dies … the times/it’s the times.” Innovation and zeitgeist in one.”

Xlr8r [USA]
[April 2004]
"Hyperdub/dubplate keeper Kode9 launches his Hyperdub imprint with two plates of minimalist UK grime arrangements wrapped around ultra-lethargic MC/spoken wordist Daddi Gee’s fathoms-deep voice. On the first slab, a throbbing bass tone, a semi-open hi-hat and the occasional eternally achoing dub chord are all that jab at Daddi’s recitation of Prince’s ‘Sign of the Times’, while half-time garridge fuels the spooky flipside, ‘Stalker’. ‘Spit’, the second record finds Gee havin’ at Public Enemy’s ‘Welcome to the Terrordrome’ in front of kode9’s chunky, haunted skarage. Order this one up at your shops."

I-D
[March 2004]
“Covers are generally shite. Or a cash in. But here dubstep garage pioneer Kode 9 returns covers to the underground’s cutting edge. “Stalker” is a rework of the much-hyped electro balladeers Junior Boys. But where there was once love, now there’s twisted percussive darkness. If, however, you think that’s dark, try Kode 9’s rework of Prince. It’s beatless, intense and paralyzing. Daddi Gee’s booming voice reaches out through the unsettled night. “The times, man… it’s the times.”

IDJ
[April 2004]
Irresistably fresh, improbably deep and radiantly warm, the sonic vapour trails froms a dystopian soundscape, as electronic music targets the next millenium. Rich, cavernous reverbs drench the baritone boom of Gee's effortlessly cool delivery, as these dubstep escapees follow Rhythm and Sound's path on the Berlin to Kingston freeway. Lost in clouds of weed smoke and urban smog, this is minimal and clinically paranoid.

Urb [USA]
[March 2004]
“Emerging from London’s furtive dub-step enclave, Kode9 strikes gold by hooking up with spoken word sorcerer Daddi Gee. As deep as Rhythm & Sound, as funky as Moodyman and as filthy as grime’s fiercest, this is head stunningly fresh and shrouded in claustrophobic atmospheric pressure. Sounding like a dervish ritual for existential dreads, this is death disco for deviant dub fiends”

Mixmag
[April 2004]
"This is the ultimate anti-anthem. If you want Eskidance to make noize or 4x4 to bounce DON’T play this awesome tune. Built around a beatless bass-pulse, it’s a startling dub Prince cover at garage tempo, with no momentum. Played in a rave it turns heads and brings the dance to a standstill. Incredible abstract shizzle."

Les Inrockuptibles
[December 2004 France]
"Deux compilations d'instrumentaux, Grime et Grime 2, ont fait evoluer ces derniers mois cet etat de fait: editees par le label Rephlex, elles presentent les meilleurs producteurs de grime, dont l'un des petits genies de la scene, Kode9. Cet Anglais de 31 ans est aussi le plus vieux producteur de la scene. DJ, il anime une emission de radio l'antenne de Rinse FM, radio pirate londonienne qui est le bastion du grime. Il a aussi sorti une poignee de maxis, dont une tres prenante reprise de Sign of the Time de Prince, rebaptisee Sign of the Dub. En compagnie du MC Daddi Gee (a ne pas confondre avec celui de Massive Attack), Kode9 prepare un album pour l'annee prochaine dont les premiere ebauches temoignent d'un son dense et d'une vision sombre de l'urbanite des annees 2000. Le grime fait a nouveau communier la musique electronique avec les atmospheres les plus envoutantes mais aussi les plus tendues du reggae et du dub jamaicain: Kingston s'est teleporte a Londres, et en 2005, il faudra preter attention a toutes les bombes qui risquent d'y exploser."

Grime 2- Kode9 / Loefah / Digital Mystikz - Rephlex
Knowledge Magazine
[October 2004]
"First some pedantic semantics: Rephlex call this "grime," most people refer to the artists here as "dubstep". But whatever, this new sound is a Croydon-centred garage offshoot, that's removed the core two-step ingredients of swing and bling and replaced them with jungle's dark depths, dub's sub-bass and broken beats' intricate drum programming. The four artists here - Mala, Coki, Loefah and Kode 9 - are all pioneers in this skunked-out, edgy sound. Track down "Grime 2" and you'll hear the echoes of multicultural London; of Jamaican, African, Chinese, Indian, American and Cockney accents. London's the defining influence on dubstep, and gives it its tempered, edgy, compressed character. These are the echoes of a tense, intense city. "

Les Inrockuptibles
[November 2004 France]
"Il y a quelques mois, Rephlex (le label d'Aphex Twin) sortait une premiere compilation 'grime', exposant trois producteurs inconnus de ce genre tres londonien, dont on ne connait ici que l'excellent Dizze Rascal. Ce nouveau volume est encore meilleur, ne serait-ce que parce qu'il comporte quatre morceaux de Kode9, producteur et DJ decouvert fin septembre lors d'un set epoustouflant donne en ouverture du festival Villette numerique. Deux autres producteurs l'accompagnent ici: Loefah et Digital Mystikz. Leurs morceaux permettent d'apprehender, stylistiquement, ce qu'est reellement cette musique: emanation de la jungle, du 2step, du UK Garage et de la techno, le 'grime' englobe aussi les influences du dub et de musiques plus exotiques, comme sur l'enivrant Bombay Squad de Loefah, qui invoque une sorte de musique indienne numerique et hypnotique. Si Massive Attack naissant aujourd'hui, ce serait sans doute cette musique-la que ferait le groupe, tres urbaine et dont chaque mouvement semble en prise directe avec l'atmosphere racaille des rues sombres de Londres"

Interviews with Kode9
Drumz of the South
Sleepy Brain