Knautic – Maelcum’s Dub (Steppin’ Razor Mix)

Описание: Vancouver's John Tennant has extensive experience in composition, engineering, and all aspects of adaptive sound design for video games, music interactivity and adaptive SFX systems. If you played anything EA Sports made between 2002 and 2005, you're probably familiar with his work, and that's only scratching the surface of his résumé. He has also performed live electronic music shows throughout Western Canada for the past 15 years; plus releasing EPs with Village Sound, Rhythmic Recordings, Telegraph, and now, where he has always belonged, EVD.

While his work under his own name has leaned towards the deep house and techno end of the spectrum, his relatively new Knautic project is all about dub and jungle, as you can hear on the Debut EP. "Soundsystem" has a bit-crushed Lee "Scratch" Perry vibe at first, moving to bold melodica, shaker percussion, and a wavering bassline with amen break flourishes. Dissecting the amen break even further, "Nameless Rasta" hints at ragga jungle as much as it peaks, creating an alluring tension, a feeling paralleled in the appropriately named "Elusive," with its rising bass growl, island guitar, spacey percussion, and birdsong, and in the funky guitar wobble, sleepy melodica stabs, and deep bass of "Täfäri Echo."

The EP is bookended by "Maelcum's Dub" (a track with heavy echo sending guitar and drums off into outer space while hi-hats sizzle and a ghostly keyboard melody floats in reverb over a bassline that starts off loosey-goosey but turns into a menacing growl) and its Steppin' Razor remix, which has a greater sense of space in its layers while showcasing intricate and even glitchy programming in its more organic percussion. The name of the track is taken from the famed William Gibson cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, with a Rastafarian called Maelcum being one of its characters.

Following is the passage that inspired the track and the remix: "She's inside," he said. "Molly's inside. In Straylight, it's called. If there's any Babylon, man, that's it. We leave on her, she ain't comin' out, Steppin' Razor or not." Maelcum nodded, the dreadbag bobbing behind him like a captive balloon of crocheted cotton. "She you woman, Case?" "I dunno. Nobody's woman, maybe." He shrugged. And found his anger again, real as a shard of hot rock beneath his ribs. "Fuck this," he said. "Fuck Armitage, fuck Wintermute, and fuck you. I'm stayin' right here." Maelcum's smile spread across his face like light breaking. "Maelcum a rude boy, Case. Garvey Maelcum boat." His gloved hand slapped a panel and the bass-heavy rocksteady of Zion dub came pulsing from the tug's speakers. "Maelcum not runnin', no. I talk wi' Aerol, he certain t' see it in similar light." Case stared. "I don't understand you guys at all," he said. "Don' 'stan' you, mon," the Zionite said, nodding to the beat, "but we mus' move by Jah love, each one."

This reference speaks to the overall mood of the EP. While cloaked in a vintage island aesthetic, it remains forward thinking, projecting the listener to a time beyond our own or a parallel present that reflects our history in unforeseen ways, a blending of the synthetic and organic. Welcome to the jungle.

Beatport: http://classic.beatport.com/release/d...
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/deb...
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1jXFWZ...

Cover art by EVD Art Director Jai Field. www.jaifield.com