Staff Reviews

Various - Hyperdub 10.3

Review by Jon Falcone

Urban, futuristic and lean, but it’s also surprisingly soft, contemplative and human.»

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'Hyperdub 10.3', the third episode of Hyperdub's 10th anniversary celebrations, transects and extrapolates forward the label's catalogue from yet another angle, this time following the melancholy vapour trail drafted by Burial's numerous atmospheric beatless moments. The compilation fleshes out this downcast ambience with a clutch of new material from Kode9, The Bug, Dean Blunt, Inga Copeland, Lee Gamble, Cooly G, Fatima Al Qadiri. Ikonika, DJ Earl (Teklife), and Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys, Jessy Lanza), alongside archive works from Burial, Laurel Halo, Fhloston Paradigm, Darkstar, Kode9 & The Spaceape, Dean & Inga, and dread heavy offerings from King Midas Sound and Walton. As with 'Hyperdub 10.2's collection of songs, these 23 mini-soundtracks for films-to-come emerged almost accidentally in the shadow of Hyperdub's main agenda of basstrax for the floor. Each piece reinterprets the idea of dubtraction : instead of merely reducing a vocal melody to echoed or reverbed vestiges, '10.3' bottles trace-music reduced to gaseous residuum, free of drums and often basslines, leaving only synthesised, sampled or looped textures that might hang fume-like, or rotate frictionless as mini cyclones. Travelling from warped, hi-def interludes to citric synth jams, from hazy devil mixes to fleeting, blue sax solos, the compilation concludes with an eight minute modular flatline.
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