Hot and fresh out the kitchen, GourmetBeats returns for their eleventh course in their endless buffet of beats and bass. This time Joe Nice gets some help from Portlandia’s ZamZam co-boss E3 alongside perennial production cohort Alter Echo and Zammy alumni Tetrad for the remix duties. Both are subterranean system shakers full of cloistered atmospheres and tectonic sub pressure and have been fittingly dubbed “Stalactite” and “Stalagmite” for that caveman stomp!
Following in the same vein as their underrated and seemingly over-looked LavaLava release “Stalactite” simmers the pressure down to dancehall tempos for maximum hip flexing. Offset bass bumps and dubspace atmospheres swirl around a rhythmic skeleton that is barebones enough for countless blending opportunities allowing the patois vapors, middle eastern motifs and little sonic sprites to swirl into a thick soup of psychedelia and do much of the heavy lifting. Whereas E3’s version is a tad more meditative, Alter Echo pushes the sub into the red and ruffs up the beat, welding pitbull barks onto the sub for some much needed aggression while filtering the dubspace into its essential oils while conjuring his own from his sample library.
B-side-wise, “Stalagmite” is a purely dubstep affair with E3’s sinewy production formed from smatterings of bongos, spider-like hi-hats and ’07 sub wobble. Like most of his tunes, a healthy dosage of reverb, echo, and Black Ark psychedelia is infused into the mix for a heady brew, but Tetrad’s remix will have the DJ’s drawing, flipping the script into a steppa with plenty of bass weight heft to scuff up some shoes, while liberally sprinkling a few pieces of sound data from the OG.
Cave Dweller EP is released August 25th and available from Unearthed Sounds, Redeye, White Peach, Juno and Intense Records.
