Search - Lena :: Lane

Technodub champion

painter@un.org | NYC | 09/24/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As it often has, Dub has predominated my musical purchases this summer, both Jamaican dub and neo-dub in its myriad forms. There have been some really solid releases recently, classics such as Linval Thompson?s ?Phoenix Dub? and the incredible Wackies stuff, esp. ?African Roots, Act III?, as well as contemporary stuff from the devastating dancehall dubs of the Mo? Wax label?s CD, ?Now Thing ? 15 dancehall instrumentals? to Gotan Projects soulful dub tango. There is a lot of talk this summer about a hybrid of dub and techno (electronica, IDM, etc) ? dubtech or dubstep or whatever, magazine articles and the lot - but it doesn?t add much to the technodubalogical innovations of the 90s. When you hear techno and dub in the same sentence - two names are unavoidable: a) Maurizio, b) Betke. Maurizio made dub safe for house music aficionados and Pole?s delicate chamber techno reanimated its flickering digital doppelganger. But as good as they are, in the end, both remain rooted in the icy cold and calculating north, they come at dub from the European traditions ? incorporating the chance and random elements, a hint of detached melody, but steering clear of the (unspeakable) passion of Jamaican dub. The challenge to techno-dub remains finding the sweet spot between the pelvis and the brain. The continental (d)ubstart, Lena, with roots in both, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (Africa) and Las Vegas, Nevada (USA), takes her/his best shot at the technodub title with the CD ?Lane? and walks away the winner. OK it is not club techno like rhythm and sound, it is more like Pole if his music came to life, but I can?t get over how good this CD is. I haven?t taken it out of the device since I bought it. The cuts fall into two categories ? a handful of wet, glitchy, upbeat, rhythmical and boomin, instrumentals that got that real dub feelin - like a reincarnated Jackie Mitto smokin? techno - along with a four part piece of dub serial-minimalism called entomodub 1-4 that sounds like early Phil Glass meets Wally Badaru at Basic Channel. Afro-funkiness clankin virtual Gamelans against hissing loops of static, I and I-bot, digi-fari, in the domain of technodub, Lena dun take de Crown."