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Matthew Styles took the long road to acclaim before puncturing charts and year end lists with the propulsive grind of “We Said Nothing.” As a manager of Crosstown Rebels and well rated DJ, he was already plugged into the scene before dropping his first collaborative and solo releases (the ill-advised “Baby Judy” homage with Jamie Jones and for Dinky’s label Horizontal, respectively). Firsthand knowledge of floor-filling fillips honed his own productions such that his first real hit cratered clubs wherever it was played, even if the flipsides were all too easily overlooked. Style’s second Horizontal single, “Speculate This…” plays out with similar gusto, except the tables are turned: the deep B cut is the one worth skipping to.

The whining motif of lead track “Eating You” recalls Matthew Dear’s False guise with sharper corners and details, like nibbling bass throbs and knuckle-cracking claps. But even as violently plucked synths resonate across the stereo channels during the breakdown, “Eating You” seems more apt to gnaw at listeners’ ankles than chase them onto the dance floor with a big set of chompers. Styles’ pal Lil’ Mark turns up the heat for his “Eating You” remix, pushing the whine to the margins as a growing bass/organ arrangement claws its way over a queasy, oscillating riff. However, the real winner is the tucked away, tribally-influenced “Paladium.” From the roving warmth of its bass line to the phased hi-hat drone, the knock-on-skulls percussion to the brief bursts of breathy chords, Styles crafts a worthy successor to “We Said Nothing” without repeating himself (or others). Hopefully he doesn’t mind when I speculate “Paladium” will carry over into 2009, continuing his ascendancy.