This year there's most certainly been a resurgence in dub, prompted by the return to the fray of Portishead, the subtle successes of Geoff Barrow's Invada Records and, in amidst the glorious murk, Anika. Yet it's not merely the Brits mucking in and mucking around in the dub control booth, to which Alex Zhang Hungtai of Montreal, Canada attests. Under the guise of Dirty Beaches, he produces intermittently suave, often howling dub blueprints you'll clamour to get your mitts on. West Coast Bird is one of those more subdued, sumptuous moments, clocking in at just under three minutes of Mulatu Astatke-esque splendour. West Coast Bird by Dirty Beaches
Street Beat Dub meanwhile epitomises the other side to Dirty Beaches, a tripped-out, slumbering bass line underpinning reverb-drenched guitars lifted from Dirty Projectors' more avant-garde flourishes and is all the better for its rudimentary demo aesthetic. Street Beat dub (demo) by Dirty Beaches
Visually, this vid to the cinematic drawl of Golden Desert Sun is quite sublime, idyllically accompanying perhaps Alex Zhang Hungtai's most promising recording thus far. Burning brightly on the horizon already.
