Duke Spook is the alter ego of electronic stalwart,
Tony Stone, a producer who has matured from his early days working
with DJ Hype and Scientist to releasing music on labels including
Flagbearer, Kickin, Earworm and Hard Leaders. On ‘Dead Weight’,
a 25 minute 4 track EP released on 3Bar Fire, he creates what
on first impressions sounds like yet more excursions into dub-step.
Don’t let first impressions fool you though because this
is more than just dub-step. Utilising his broad range of musical
influences, ‘Dead Weight’ is a versatile, multi-textured,
dark and mystical journey into atmospheric electronic ambience,
using the skeleton of dub-step as a guiding light to a more varied
and satisfying soundscape. The closest reference point in terms
of sound would be Burial’s debut album or Geiom but fused
with the otherworldly ambience of Future Sound of London and molded
in the cold, psycho-mechanical tech-step aesthetic of No U-Turn
records.
The opener ‘Crosswaves’ sets the mood
with its linear kicks, subtly irate bass-lines, swooping synths
and ethereal vocal snippets which all coalesce to create a ghostly
yet driven atmosphere that oozes out of your speakers like a sludgy
sonic-tar that you don’t want to end. The brilliantly named
‘Duul’s Rage Against Jah’ is the EP’s
real shining star as warping bass-lines of differing frequencies
engage in harmonic battle over a terrain of scattered snare kicks,
electro-bleeps and fluttering micro-melodies. The arrangement
of these elements is undertaken in a riveting and unformulaic
manner, engrossing the listener into the melodically tinged dub
storm, every so often stripping back to gather momentum for the
next onslaught of bass attack.
The shifting atmospherics of ‘Brooklyn Bridge’
with its high-tempo beat clusters is pure magic for the post-3am
hypno dub-step crowd who are looking to be elevated to higher
plains yet still want that energy-creating momentum to provide
the backbeat to their entrancement. The closer, ‘Futurepasts’
is probably the most fleshed-out offering on the EP. Utilising
a jazzy aesthetic, a varied range of dark micro-orchestral melodies
and ethereal sub-vocals flower out of an upbeat and constantly
meandering bass-line that wouldn’t seem out of place on
a DJ Dougal tape pack.
With
‘Dead Weight’, Duke Spook takes ethereal atmospheric
electronica, which admittedly had its heyday in the mid-nineties,
and contemporises it through an intricate fusion with brooding
dub-step dynamics to create an entity that is as fresh as it is
unique. The balance of electro-ambience and threatening, energy-creating
bass is just right, carving out a tangible yet delicate aura of
eeriness and gloominess to the highly charged, bass-heavy soundscape.
This is a essential formula that so many of today’s dub-step
producers try in vain to create but end up creating cold and sterile
atmospherics that are distinctly separate to the bass and beats.
All in all, ‘Dead Weight’ is a warm yet hostile piece
of atmospheric dub-step and we can’t wait for a full length
release. (AM)
For
fans of: Distance, Pinch, Geiom, Burial, Kode 9, Future Sound
of London, Biosphere
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