El Rakkas

Seas Of Disease + CD

Austrian production duo El Rakkas make a sound that floats somewhere in the space between Rhythm And Sound, and the more deeply atmospheric end of the dubstep spectrum. However, to suggest that these boys are more about headphone burn than dancefloor glow would be to do them a glib dis-service, as anyone who has pushed their previous LoDubs 12" through a proper soundsystem can verify. The original mystical versions of these tracks first appeared in July '09, and now those elements have been bathed in the scrutiny of two dons of bass, LV and XI, with a sensibility that shows a pretanatural understanding of the individual songs inherent traits. LV's long association with Hyperdub goes back to 2007 and the righteous 'Globetrotting' 12, through summer 08's hit-that-never-was 'CCTV', right up to the yearning 'Turn Away', easily one of the best tracks on the label's 'Five Years' collection. Their re-rub of 'Seas Of Disease' injects a punchy (nearly) four-on-the-floor kick drum and driving swing, with distinctive crackles and effects in abundance, defining what could be the touchstone of a newly-emergent familia-bassus, should some wastrel blogger decide to give it a pithy name. Conversely, and in pure ying to LV's yang, Toronto dance master and LoDubs veteran XI presents a monster fix of 'I & I' with muted drums, rich sub-bass tones, and clipped rhythmic edits which add a propulsive energy to the original's dreamtime aura. Sticking steadfast to his don't-throw-everything-at-the-wall version style, the raw power in his remix comes from an "anti-wobble" technique, an ingeniously applied bassline full of subharmonic sweeps, bleeps, and creeps that similarly demands a classification of its own. Beh-leev dat. Limited run of 400 copies including free CD of both tracks in the patented LoDubs Vinyl-Plus jacket.