While we all hope for the summer weather to return, London’s See How is back with an important message in new single 422ppm.

By Graeme Smith

The great thing about dance music is that there are so many sub-genres. However, it does sometimes make it difficult for the layman (when it comes to dance music, I consider myself one) to class it all correctly. 422ppm is a “deep garage” track but, if you’ve not heard of that before, never fear, because lovers of dance music in general will find a lot to love about it.

422ppm is a bright, summery track that opens minimal with the old school keys and soft vocalisations. After a stripped-back intro, the track develops into a bass-y house groove. Just as you get a measure of it, things subside to allow a spoken word vocal to come in, reminiscent of Fred Again and The Blessed Madonna’s hit Marea (we’ve lost dancing) and others of that ilk.

The vocals come courtesy of UK activist, writer, councillor and TV pundit Chantelle Lunt. They speak with a heavy Liverpudlian twang and deliver poetry that is rich with imagery and philosophy. There’s an artiness to it that contrasts the accessibility of the instrumental beautifully.

Speaking about the poem, Chantelle Lunt says: “I wrote [it] to remind people that we are essentially guests on this planet, and that somewhere along the way we’ve lost sight of our original mission – to be guardians of the world around us. The words are taken from my poem ‘Pass The Mic’, which poses the question ‘whose voices are we centring when we talk about the climate emergency?’ Because too often the ones controlling the narrative are not the ones suffering the brunt of climate catastrophe in the Global South – people whose indigenous knowledge and practices point to our original mission of guardianship.”

After the verse, the groove comes back in, this time bringing with it more textures. It urges you to move along, keeping things fresh and interesting through a danceable mid-section. Of course, as you will now expect, the spoken word is on its way back and it brings with it some visceral storytelling of colonisers and their corporate descendants. The track makes a powerful, political point while encouraging unity.

See How says: “when I started the initial ideas for this track, the planet had reached 422 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere. By the time this track is released, we will have passed 430ppm. Circling back to the phrase ‘guard this land, so that all can breathe’, I wanted to platform Chantelle’s message of guardianship, to say that from our dark past, there is still hope to be found in those who remember our original mission.”

We get a final dance groove as the track reaches its final leg and things end much as they started, with delicate, pleasing minimal textures.

See How is an artist to which I keep finding myself returning and 422ppm feels like his most important release yet. Whatever its genre, it’s danceable and delivers a message. What more can you ask for?

422ppm is out now, available to buy on Bandcamp. You can give it a listen below.