Manchester born Alex Coulton has steadily garnered a following throughout a slew of lauded 12”s on Hype LTD, Black Acre, Idle Hands, Livity Sound sub Dnous Ytivil and Bloc’s new imprint. Derivative of the sound championed by Bristol’s Hodge and Peverelist, Coulton has nestled himself in amongst the ranks and successfully branded his own stamp on the tougher strands of UK-centric Bass music. Now - in the follow up to his Freefall EP on Bloc, Coulton lines up his next 12” on Tempa, his second outing on London’-s stalwart institute that comes in the form of a burly two-tracker titled Hand To Hand Combat / Concealed Weapon. Packed with pugnacious bass tones and dystopian drones - ‘Hand To Hand Combat’ kicks things off. Driven, steely toms and pellucid rim shots scatter across the mix in a high pressure affair before ‘Concealed Weapon’ demonstrates the droit management of atmospherics that’s propelled Coulton’s production path thus far. Dense, throbbing subs form an underbelly whilst menacing growls are intertwined with reverberated claps and snares that work to dial an urgent sense of tension and wrap up another fine addition to Tempa’s ever-expanding catalogue.