Martijn Deykers' fourth album was affected by the 2017 death of
Marcus Intalex, a crucial drum'n'bass figure who released some of the earliest
Martyn material and later issued tracks on
Deykers' own label. Moreover,
Deykers suffered a nearly fatal heart attack the same year. While recovering, he listened to
Max Roach's
M'Boom and discovered spaces within the playing of the 1979 session's eight percussionists he hadn't previously sensed. Inspired by these events,
Voids is yet another taut and lavishly detailed, yet never congested, set of productions that hybridize U.K. garage, dubstep, drum'n'bass, house, and techno, with an emphasis on the rhythmic friction of the first two styles. It might not provide the "almost 3-D experience"
Martyn had with the
Roach LP, but it easily prompts bodily movement with another array of vigorously knocking, faintly gravelly drums, pitch-black bass drones, and the odd melodic smear of synthesizer. The tracks that stimulate the most include the acid-tinged churner "Mind Rain," the tabla-laced "Why," the simultaneously physical and heady "World Gate," and the scuffed-up, slightly corroded "Manchester." The last of those tracks is titled after
Intalex's hometown and not coincidentally filled with a repetitious proclamation of "Deep, deep talent, and we've lost a big one."