bass is the place

Tigersonic

Blipcuts

UK  Linear Obsessional  LOR132  Cassette/DL  (2019)

An engaging, super-varied, set of twenty (count ‘em) tracks of dub-inflected electronica, none of which break the two and a half minute mark, which is great if you’re, like, you know, into the whole brevity thing.  Linear Obsessional describe the work as “…abstract noise, majestic cavernous dub and angular funk…” which puts you in the ballpark, but I would add that parts of Blipcuts manage to bridge the divide between bass music and “experimental”; a divide whose borders seem to shift in intriguing ways on a seemingly daily basis - see recent work from Hieronymus Dub Sounds, Diatribes, Al Breadwinner/Nat Birchall/Vin Gordon, Young Echo, Dhangsha (see below) as well as recent developments at the ever-reliable On-U stable.

Felix Tigersonic is a London-based producer/engineer and bassist who works provides creative mentoring and recording services from her studio SmartMix.  Felix uses her knowledge amd expertise to good effect on this tape; presenting a batch of great-sounding material.

As a whole, Blipcuts is massively enveloping, with nicely paced development, despite the shortness of the tracks.  In fact, I found the shortness of the pieces a refreshing approach.  “Incoming Blur” and “You May Be Late” show a distinct On-U Sound influence.  “Shadow Shimmer” features Mick Karn or Jaco Pastorius-like bass harmonics, while “Lava Lava Lamp” is more abstract.

Apparently, initial copies of this cassette come with a packet of her own Tigersonic branded popping candy, in an effort to highlight the dichotomy in the necessity of presenting artistic endeavour as commerciality, perhaps.  The cassette I obtained direct from the label included a “Happy Bassday” badge.  Nice.

 https://www.linearobsessional.org/

Dhangsha

Future Tense

UK  self-released  no number  Cassette/DL  (2019)

I’ve noticed that there has been a steady drip feed of new material from Aniruddha Das under the moniker Dhangsha mainly on Soundcloud over the last 18 months or so.  Dhangsha is probably better known as  Dr Das, erstwhile bass player of Asian Dub Foundation who continue to regularly release new material, but perhaps more interestingly have been developing a second revenue stream by means of their live rescoring of films La Haine and The Battle of Algiers.  On Future Tense, Das weaves a dense and paranoid web of sonic intrigue with his minimalist electronic set up. Das says “DHANGSHA (Bengali for ‘destruction’) produces dark, edgy soundscapes where cyclical noise and distorted synth motifs mutate over sparse but heavy beats. Using little more than an Elektron Digitakt and RAT distortion pedal, he attempts to emulate the sound of broken speakers / windows reverberating at a warehouse party / interrupted transmissions from outer space.”

The dub sensibility is still heavily in evidence as you might expect, but this work is looser, more organic than any of his work with ADF, certainly.  The material is broken up into a morass of arterial tendrils; the unrelenting low end rolling over the listener in waves.  Actually, this is music best heard over a large soundsystem; I suspect Das has designed it that way - recently he has been working in partnership with Bantu and Ramjac.  Dhangsha live outings saw him in underground club spaces like Grow Tottenham and with 50-50 Soundsystem.

It shares some of the attributes of dub techno, but the DNA is not the same.  Where even the best dub techno has the feeling of being tightly controlled, this is seemingly on the edge of collapse at all times.  Satisfyingly, tape delay effects are allowed to feedback freely; some of the electronic drums sound like tabla.

Das himself says of Future Tense:

“A documentation of my return after over 25 years, to using hardware to pursue my undiminished love of experimental rhythm and noise. The sound is a consequence of being a practising dub musician who happens to listen to Detroit techno, particularly Underground Resistance and Robert Hood, electronic noise music and the scorched soundscapes of 70s Miles Davis.  An exploration of minimalism, repetition and fragmentation in sound and the political potential of pure frequencies.”

Available on Bandcamp for those of a non-analogue persuasion.  Recommended.

https://dhangsha.bandcamp.com/

STOP PRESS
Aniruddha posted a response to this review on social media which goes some way to explain the exact nature of his project Dhangsha, so I include it here verbatim:

"This album marks my departure from the 'dub scene' - but not from a 'dub mentality' as you rightly point out. I still utilise dub's scientific principles but am not at all interested in deliberately re-producing the 'genre,' or any of its mannerisms. The most perverse thing I've done is that as a known dub bass player of 25 years, I've not written any bass lines! What you have instead, are tuned bass drums, which, combined with de-tuned congas and other low frequency synth fragments produce 'implied' or 'imagined' bass melodies in the mind of the listener. The kicks are also modulated with a low pass filter which bends the note and produces movement. Your observation of the music being "seemingly on the edge of collapse" (a great possible album title) is spot on. It's deliberate and facilitated by feeding the entire mix through a RAT distortion pedal and blending to different degrees with the clean signal. Aside from my finding these textures rather pleasing (very disconcerting though for sound engineers and traditional dub heads) it has various implications - it represents uncertainty, discontent, debate, discussion, possible violence, destruction of discredited ideas, personal struggle etc. It is meant to f**k with your mind - in a positive way - not to be a passive, unquestioning recipient of someone else's wisdom - and compel your body to move in different, freer ways. In relation to the latter point, I've dispensed with snares and the few understated claps appear in unusual places. The rhythmic framework has been bust open - you've got 'Beat one' heavily stated to orientate you- then you're free to dance how you want."

- Aniruddha Das, august 2019