Add another notch to Ossia‘s belt. Bringing in Portlandia dub-meisters E3 (who runs ZamZam Sounds alongside Tracy of Polygon Press) and brother in arms Alter Echo for a dancehall inspired jaunt through the refracted prism of Trump America. Simultaneously danceable, yet sinister, the first release for LAVALAVA is a biggie and in true dub fashion, both the A and B side are given an appropriately Black Ark psychedelic brain scrub. Dear reader, you should know by now that this comes with the TRUSIK stamp of approval.
“Call Mi Name” is built from the ground up with cavernous bass pulses, tape hiss and loping hand drums that soon morph into a screed of interwoven samples accrued from dusty middle eastern singles, sound boy boasts, and post-punk electronics that combine into something more than its simple parts. The dub version splices more Rasta ham radio chatter piped from deep space and slathers the rest of the riddim in enough crust punk dirt to make the Bug shed a tear.
Down below, “No Fire” is the more ghostly counterpart, with much of the sample-delics occurring way far away in the imagined soundfield. Whereas the A-side was more strident in it’s danceability, “No Fire” is more rhythmically spartan – reminding me of Flowers of Romance era PiL met Mad Professor. Like the A-side before it, Alter Echo’s “Dub Fyah Mix” flips the script, creating some serious voodoo magick with the riddim by throwing the kitchen sink and seeing what sticks (that’s not a backhanded compliment either, it’s a genuine one).
LV01 is out now and available from Unearthed Sounds, Redeye, Juno, Bleep and Rewind Forward.
