Vibrating the purple and gold leaves of forest festival stages this year is Sub Basics’ second outing on Temple of Sound. This wax-only (wax-offly) plate rolls with the punches of Modern Hypnosis and Glome Sound, deepening the Aztec corridors of dub-techno. Following his recent drop of 140-focused acetate on Concept Collective, Sub Basics carries the momentum forward on his own freshly cut record label.
Driving side A is the slow-burning, low-key anthem, ‘Nomad’. Its gentle, arcane hook floats down moss-covered stones and into the steady kicks and snares that pace in firelight below. Stripped back to the jungle, ‘Amazon Dub’ (featuring Lo Chi) lauds spiralling syncopation and the call of nature. Dub-delays and clandestine pads send synapse signals through the percussive trance, leading you beyond the edge of the woods and deep into the ever-morphing images of your mind. Slithering across ‘Zombie’ is the rattlesnake, the temple chimes and of course the oldschool. After exploring the pace, progression and tempo of techno, Sub Basics unlocks the doors of a muddy-map-marked dubstep pyramid and dances us down its ancient, dub-carved corridors.
The gentle textures that immerse you into the trance and flow of each track set Temple of Sound apart. Even the dead-weight of ‘Zombie’ opens its arms to fresh ears when placed in the unfolding nature of snakes and gongs. The successful blend of unfurling mystery and chest-wobbling low-end grants this release access to a wide spectrum of dancefloors; it keeps up with the light-hearted (but heavily focused) ravers whilst giving bass-junkies the moody frowns they need. And if you’re a 140-head that’s worried you won’t find many occasions to get these tracks in, then Sub Basics has you covered. On his Facebook page, he revealed that you should “try the B side at 45 rpm with the pitch fader all the way down, the 2 tracks will come out around 140.” Over their first two releases, Temple of Sound have carved distinctive waveforms into dub-techno. Ready with his own hammer and chisel, Pugilist stands to take the altar in TOS003.
