Current mood: DUBWISDOM...
Category: DUBWISDOM... Music
As far as I understand it, the genre of Dubstep classifies a certain slow beat, bass heavy, multi-layered, plodding style of music that descends from Dub Reggae and Two Step..
Another way to describe it would be, that if Drum 'n' Bass is Dub Reggae speeded up, then Dubstep is Dub Reggae slowed down.
Whatever it is (if it is), I'm not fond of it...
No boss, perhaps I'm loosing my electro zeitgeist edge at the slovenly age of 32, but I find Dub Reggae to be slow enough without any further decrease in the BPM. Furthermore, I find Dubstep to be mostly the product of the ultra hardcore headbanging hydroponically grown weed that is currently being sold as a good time AKA schizophrenia...
All this being so, I was a touch nervous about reviewing this LP by Deadbeat. Indeed, trying to second guess it's contents, I wondered if I wasn't about to have to write a review characterised by my very best negative thoughts on the ills of dubstep and heavy hard dream drugs.
But no, after one play then continuing onto the 20 or 30th, I've been very pleasantly surprised to find Journeyman's Annual to be a thoroughly excellent record.
If not dubstep then what??
Well, Journeymans Annual is denser and thicker than a rainforest half way up the Amazon, and rather remarkably it's almost as beautiful.
Yes boss, this is a record that's been made by a deep lover of sound - the kind of man who thinks nothing of standing right in front of the speakers for hours on end in order to properly absorb and understand the intensity of what's going on.
Journeymans Annual a kind of Dub for the computer age with elements of normal paced dub, hints of dubstep, nods to African Polyrhthms, tribal beats, and a similar production style not disimilar to the super heavy style of Trentemoller.
It's like a swimming pool of thick and deep black water that swings and sways, and once the bass heavy rhythms kick in, with all the swagger of a big iron ball, I find I want to dive right on in with absolutely no regard for my own personal safety, to be completely and utterly absorbed by the thick FAT FUCKING BASS...
Yes boss, secondo me, too much later day dub and reggae has been constructed using naff synthesized immitation sounds that have followed identikit rhythms to those created 35 years ago by the likes of Tubby & Perry. But this definately isn't the case here. Though some signature dub sounds feature, far more noticeable is the definite and real attention to detail on each and every noise featured and then again on how they all sit together...
If I were to have a complaint with the LP at all, it'd be, that as with the Trentemoller LP The Last Resort, some of the guest vocalists aren't quite as strong as the sounds on top of which they talk - but as with Trentemoller this is a small distraction...
In short, Journeyman's Annual is a splendidly solid, firm and well built record and having heard it, my main concern remains donning my favourite pair of speedos and diving into it's layers on a proper big soundsystem...
 | Currently listening : Journeyman’s Annual By Deadbeat Release date: By 10 July, 2007  |
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 | Peace Loving Bohemian Bitch   |
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