Echodub: Cat. # ECHO003
Released April 2010
Track List:
1. Subreachers - Memories Of A Better Time (3:41)
2. Box Mouse - 5:37am Outside The Station (4:53)
3. Actraiser - Imaginarium (6:40)
4. Egoless - Back Home (6:37)
5. Svpreme Fiend - Prover (3:17)
6. Think - All Wet (5:06)
7. SimonOff - Trip To Luca (5:29)
8. Lurka - Cosmic (3:38)
9. Tribal - White Rain (5:47)
10. Vandera - India Joya (6:10)
11. Lojik - White Room (5:51)
12. Jas - In A Heartbeat (5:57)
13. Dminus - Ultramarine (6:39)
IN BRIEF: Chill-step, yes!
As quickly as dubstep’s rise to critical popularity seemed to go, so too has the critical backlash. Perhaps it was to be expected though, what with everyone hopping on the Hot New Genre bandwagon at a time when EDM was dying for such. Now, however, it seems the journals and blogs are almost afraid to cover anything that isn’t a high-profile release, and I don’t blame them.
Admit it: the moment you saw ‘dubstep’ in that first sentence, your eyes glazed over with either trepidation or disinterest.
Such a backlash is inevitable when the genre has been flooded with an ocean of dreary half-step beats, glitch effects, and gimmick basslines. If you’ve put any faith in yours truly though, you’ll know I wouldn’t be talking about a dubstep release if it didn’t have some merit. And of course, if I’m talking about dubstep with merit, chances are it’s of the ‘atmospheric’ variety, right?
Yeah, that’s about right.
This free compilation from Echodub certainly is that, a label which has skewed more favorably towards the blissy side of grimey beats. Not content to simply be a showcase of their own artists, Echodub has rather rounded up a bunch of unknowns and fresh faces to the table: Box Mouse, Lojik, Vandera, and more.
The music itself isn’t “all dubstep, all the time” either. Indeed, we open up with nothing more than gentle piano ambience and haunting machine breathing (Memories Of Better Times). This is followed by lush, ethereal synth washes over a more typical half-step beat in Outside The Station. And while I’ve grown quite tired of hearing that “seen things you wouldn’t believe” sample (seriously, guys, Bladerunner did have more dialog, y’know), it doesn’t detract from Box Mouse’s lovely tune.
We run through a number of chill-out varieties for a good chunk of this digi-comp’s middle, each tune offering something unique, if not exactly fresh. Back Home has a bit of an Ibizan flavor, Prover comes off like a b-side to Burial’s album Untrue, All Wet sounds like it could have also been featured on an Ultimae release, while Trip To Luca channels IDM wonk. These are all fine for the most part, perfect chill-out fodder for a compilation of this sort.
The tunes in the second half of Echodub Loves, however, get a little more creative, bringing forward some of dubstep’s more common tropes and giving them a fresh spin for the chill sect. An easy highlight out of this bunch is India Joya from Vandera: think some of the best atmospheric jungle from the 90s and instead given a half-step beat; lovely tune, this be.
White Room follows suite with a little more aggression, and In A Hearbeat gets proper dubby on our asses, bringing the compilation to a strong close. Erm, well, aside from that clicky dub-techno cut at the very end, which is only interesting if you’re up for some sub-whoofer torture.
Frankly, this should be a no-brainer of a release if you’re up for some creative chill-out. It’s free, for crissakes! Even if you don’t like all the tracks, you can still cherry-pick the ones you prefer at no cost to yourself. Fortunately, there’s enough musical strength here such that even a casual consumer of the heady-side of dubstep and atmospheric glitch can get some enjoyment from a full play-through.
Score: 7/10
ACE TRACKS:
Box Mouse - 5:37am Outside The Station
Vandera - India Joya
Lojik - White Room
Written by Sykonee, 2010. © All rights reserved.
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