There’s an old adage in drum & bass that once you’ve mastered the craft at 170 you can explore any genre and make an impression on it.

A certain magic happens when the clarity, weight and pace of D&B is translated in slower, deeper genres. It’s been proved time and time again since the mid 90s when D&B began losing talents like Teebone to UKG and 4Hero to broken beat and was most relevant when D&B producers started smashing out massive chart hits. From Evol Intent’s Knick’s Bro Safari transformation to Matrix’s top 10 house hit as Goldtrix to Noisia’s Zonderling operation to Outrage’s Nomine alias; producers who first make their name in D&B can explore any genre they like and not just make an impression but smash the hell out of it and take it in a completely different direction.

Such is the case with Monuman; the no-rules, free-for-all exploration headed up by Conor Corrigan, a man best known as Emperor, responsible for some of Critical’s most innovative and dynamic releases in the last five years. The project began in 2015 with a string of free beats on Soundcloud and no fanfare whatsoever before he appeared on Inspected and Division a year later. The sound; a wonky, unpredictable brew with strong wafts of glitch and downtempo. The feels; often mournful, provocative, emotional, introspective but prone to wild outbursts. The weight; consistently heavy.

The results; well they speak for themselves. Especially on Conor’s recent Polychoral EP on Inspected. Weighing in at six tracks with some of the most touching and most brutal compositions he’s ever conjured, it’s his broadest and largest Monuman release to date. It’s not going to be his last, either. Here’s what’s happening in dual life of Conor and why he created his Monuman alias in the first place. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.