[All City Records]

Ireland’s All City label has a way of dropping hidden gems from somewhat big name producers seemingly without warning. Usually focusing on abstract and playful hip-hop, particularly the kind dominant on the American West Coast, All City strikes some interesting territory with its new “Collabs” series, taking in Dutch bass producer Martyn and Irish weirdo Mike Slott for a surprisingly fluid team effort.

You can hear each producer’s own tendencies and tics float to the surface through the details in each tune, and their collaboration has a way of melting down their own styles into something rather polished and congruous. Stylistically, there’s still a clear divide between these two sides of vinyl, like each producer putting their own take on another’s tune rather than building from the ground up. “All Nights” would seem to be Martyn’s baby, chords bounding over a straightforwardly jacking beat just like 2010’s “Left Hander,” but the whole thing is lent a plasticine sheen that’s no doubt the signature of Slott. Bizarre sound effects and extra-musical noises pop up at unexpected moments, meshing Martyn’s more measured personality with a hip-hop sense of syncopation. The slow, rolling “Pointing Fingers” would then seem to be Slott’s creation, a rollicking hip-hop track that rides low for most of its duration until it breaks out into an ecstatic march.

The track’s warm, careful bass line and soothing chords are ostensibly the Dutchman’s hand, and they ground a style that’s often predisposed to disposability with Martyn’s characteristic sense of restraint and class. With a new catalog number series 12×12, it looks like there are more “Collabs” to come. There’s probably not a better way to start off this series than with these tracks, which rise above their namedrop value and stand out as unique tracks in their creators’ discographies.