Davinche’s beats always sound better with MCs or singers on top; their stripped down Triton Workstation tones are too tacky on their own, with baroque strings fidgeting over clicky-clacky drum patterns. But with a human voice on top they become fully realized micro-symphonies, like a pairing of G-Unit and Dillinjah. Beware his tune’s sharp hooks; they’ll snag any of us unsuspecting cod.
Deep Blue Soho Code
Hail the return of Moving Shadow legend Sean O’Keefe (2 Bad Mice), who delivers new tracks that balance hard and smooth d&b tactics like so few can these days. With stylish ambient pads, up-down elevator bass sweeps and plenty of intricate sounds pinballing through the mix, “Soho Code” should go places. Producer Spirit adds a nice sharp angle to drums of “Coral” on the flip. Essential.
Fat Jon The Ample Soul Physician Talk to Me
Beatmaker, MC and Five Deez member Fat Jon delivers three new tracks that see his instrumentals further aligning with the like of atmospheric hip-hoppers RJD2 and Blockhead. But Jon’s core sound-introspective jazz samples shrouded in subtle keyboard camouflage-have a potent, trad-hip-hop drum-programming foundation. Yam Who’s tempo-changing Latin-disco take on Jon’s “Torn Again” adds some variety to this EP.
Non Terra Incognita: Ambient Works 1975 Present
Boyd Rice (Non) has a reputation as a nasty nihilist, but he’s produced some of the most exquisitely gorgeous music ever-even an atheist might call some of it heavenly. Terra Incognita surveys Rice’s nearly 30-year tenure as a maverick sound sculptor. Over these 13 tracks, Rice proves himself to be the master of hypnotic loops, be they lush, chiming Cocteau Twinsy guitars, scything zithers, stereopanned harps, or decaying tintinnabulation. And for sinners, Rice offers “A Taste Of Blood,” a sonic catastrophe in miniature that captures the howls of the damned as hellfire consumes them. That’s entertainment.
Various Artists Hitek By Meteosound
Meteosound equals clicks ‘n’ cuts production techniques applied to hip-hop and dub rhythm matrices. The 14 acts on Hitek By Meteosound apply fresh coats of sonic paint to houses showing wear and tear. Artists like Dabrye, Headset, Apparat (remixed by Monolake), and Andreas Tilliander engage in digital skullduggery with hip-hop’s roots, and the DNA-tampering results in much tantalizing music. Dub-oriented cuts by Bus and Fenin dip into innocuousness, but they’re the exception. More typical of Hitek is Thomas Fehlmann’s sparse, processional ambient dub that’s suffused in funereal ambience, spotlighting a compelling tension between heaviness and lightness.
A Certain Ratio Sextet
Originally released in 1982 on Factory Records, A Certain Ratio’s second proper album transforms funk and dub into alien and oddly emotionless forms of expression-and that’s ultimately what makes ACR so interesting. Sextet sounds utterly distinctive due to Martha Tilson’s voice and Jeremy Kerr’s bass. Tilson’s voice is flat and pallid, yet spectral, like a novocained Exene Cervenka, while Kerr’s bass is flanged, bubbling, elastically loop-da-looping, always gracefully guiding ACR’s so-loose-they’re-tight tracks along with Donald Johnson’s athletic percussion. Despite the plethora of excellent avant-funk bands now, nobody’s really advanced this mutant genre with ACR’s uniquely chilly strangeness.
Greg Davis Somnia
Multi-instrumentalist Davis’ third album veers off the mellifluous folktronica path of 2002’s Arbor and 2004’s Curling Pond Woods to tackle academic composition and ’70s proto-ambient. From the opening track, “Archer,” which recalls classic dronewerks like David Behrman’s On The Other Ocean, Steve Hillage’s Rainbow Dome Musick, and Fripp/Eno’s No Pussyfooting, Davis establishes a compelling integrity and depth to his tonal tapestries. Whether mirroring Charlemagne Palestine’s full-bodied organ oscillations or conjuring Plutonian Muzak, Davis displays an appreciation of minutely gradual development rare in this age of pandemic ADD. His acute attention to detail and keen ear for eerie, glitchy ambience richly reward headphone fiends.
Stereotyp Meets Al-Haca Phase Three
Austria’s Stereotyp and Germany’s Al-Haca Soundsystem have each fused dub and tech into a potent bass-heavy concoction on their debut albums My Sound and Inevitable, respectively. Having teamed up on two EPs this year as Stereotyp Meets Al-Haca,” “Phase Three” completes the circle inna full-length mode. Complimented by some of reggae’s finest toasters such as Daddy Freddy, DJ Collage, RQM and Lady Saw, ragga is transported into the 21st century with nary a hint of remorse. “Next-level shit” aptly applies here, and should get subwoofers moving to dem boombastic beats.
Quantic Mishaps Happening Remixes
The man-of-the-moment Quantic keeps on keeping on with two new remixes off his tight Mishaps Happening album. The Bugz’s Seiji takes on “Don’t Joke With A Hungry Man” and kills it, while Quantic himself bumps up the drums on the title track for the floor. Two new tracks (“Departure” and the moody, sub-bass driven “Quick Sand”) round out this nice companion to his latest album. Quantic’s moment rolls on.
Various Artists Twilight Circus Dub Soundsystem Remixed: Dubwise
Truly great dub highlights sonic elements you may have missed in the original mix, giving the tune an all-new feel. Twilight Circus release their reels to heavyweight producers and, in return, receive modern masterpieces. While Vibronics, Disciples, Mad Professor and Manasseh offer more traditional treatments, G-Corp changes half-time to double-time behind Big Youth on “Love Is What We Need” and Rob Smith does the same on “No Burial,” giving Michael Rose’s plaintive wail a lively up-tempo backdrop. But the real standout is Zion Train’s digital roots dub of “What We Got To Do” that takes the original to stellar heights.
