JAY GLASS DUBS “New Teeth for an Old Country” (Bokeh Versions)

Dimitris Papadatos’s output as Jay Glass Dubs has a cold, removed feel to it, an insular quality that keeps it at arm’s length from the listener in some respects. This isn’t surprising, perhaps, coming from an artist who has released a tape called “Glacial Dancehall.” Papadatos takes the ideas of dub and adds a distinctive Euro vibe to it, resulting in tracks that are at once catchy and distant, too cool for the eternally optimistic, too kinetic for the eternally dour. Still, it’s music you can immerse yourself in, within the ever-present Beats by Dre headphones attached to your skull, perfect for commuting or wandering or both, taking in cityscapes and passersby with an equal amount of detachment as they give to you. Synths swirl and chime minor-key melodies, rhythms shuffle and lurch, and the cold air escapes your lungs in clouds of moisture as you exhale along with the patterns of observable life. Retreat further into yourself as the tape continues – by “Interlude II – Careless Dub,” you should be practically subterranean in your outlook. And by “Double Edge Sword Dub,” I’ve finally realized that JGD finds a kindred spirit in one of my favorite projects along these lines, the exquisite Forest Swords. (It’s probably the continuity of the word “sword” that initiated the eureka moment.) Both do the creeping dub thing, although FS uses more guitars. Regardless of comparison, the Jay Glass Dubs brand is fully his own and fully realized, and New Teeth for an Old Country is as particular a listening experience as you’re likely to find. Get yourself in that mood, and get yourself some JGD for urban trekking – you’ll thank me when you start getting epiphanies on the human condition while you’re on the move, a welcome side effect of all that chilly introspection.

Jay Glass Dubs on Soundcloud

Bokeh Versions

--Ryan Masteller

VOODOO TAPES “Chant and Call” (Bokeh Versions)

In the summer of 1858, the Great Stink permeated the city of London, a nightmare whose ingredients consisted of an antiquated sewage system and a population just large enough to overwhelm it. Can you imagine how bad London smelled? Fortunately, the event kicked off a massive public works project to refit the city’s wastewater conduits, thereby allowing the city’s residents to breathe again, after a while of course. (The plan also cut down on the cholera outbreaks caused by the backed-up sewage.)

Maybe that’s a bit too much for an opener here, and you may be wondering what the eff I’m talking about. (That or you’re trying in vain to keep your breakfast down.) But put two and two together for a second here: first, Bokeh Versions is based in South London, which really had to have been hit pretty hard by the Great Stink, even though we’re a century and a half down the road from it. So the label got a pretty good deal, if you ask me. Right place, right time. Second, Voodoo Tapes, the recording moniker of Giovanni Roma of Naples, Italy, makes music that can pretty much only be described as “dank,” moving at a pace of “sludge” and eliciting wary glances in dark alleys in the middle of the night. In short, it’s perfect electronic music for European cities, well ventilated or otherwise.

Roma works in the Venn diagram center of dub and electronic music, crafting moody dancefloor pieces for disillusioned hipsters who are tired of all your Skrillexes and, I dunno, SKisMs. This isn’t to say that Voodoo Tapes sounds anything like or owes anything to Skrillex or SKisM, I just mean that those guys can fuck off and cede the PA system to Voodoo Tapes. Because despite all the grossout nausea inducements above, it’s the gut where you feel Voodoo Tapes the most, although it’s more gut-level earth movement than movement of any other kind. God, I’m feeling so dirty right now typing this, but I can’t stop! Anyway, dub meets illbient in an occult bookstore and starts a reading group, is what I’m trying to say, really. Because books make you smart, and Voodoo Tapes is smarter than Skrillex in, like, every way.

But don’t take my word for it, because my word sounds like a History Channel metaphor for music gone wrong. Take Jay Glass Dubs’ word for it, because he’s awesome, and he remixed “The Summoning.” And Jambassa’s remix of “Dawn” is pretty special too. And the five Voodoo Tapes originals that make up the rest of the tape are pure creep bombs lobbed from a laptop at the bottom of the Thames. Let’s just hope the dreaded London Fog keeps itself at bay for another 150 years.

Bokeh Versions

Voodoo Tapes on Farcebook

--Ryan Masteller