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Dub Syndicate, "Murder Tone"
There's a chilled-out and generally cool feeling to every song on this disc. Every song is a pure, vibrating, and relaxing mix of dub beats and hypnotic melodies culled from a myriad of cultural influences.On-U Sound
Adrian Sherwood blends everything together with elegant production techniques; consuming bass melodies and driving rhythms ride into and run with floating guitar melodies, blaring saxophones, and dabs of sitar and tablas. The album kicks off with a killer mix of Prince Far I's "African Landing" and never comes down from that point: it's a swirling mesh of heavy bass, uplifting guitars, and a plethora of studio tricks. Sherwood has a knack for making the smallest adjustments to certain sounds so that, despite their sometimes repetitive nature, they sound fresh throughout. "Let the Spirit Rise" makes excellent use of this technique. A rabid and hyper bass melody parades throughout the entire song while James Bond-esque strings and smoothness wonder about over the top. Multiple times throughout the song Sherwood swtiches up the color of that melody and pans it all over the stereo spectrum keeping the same tune moving throughout the whole song in various forms. There's a special sort of attitude suffused throughout every song. My shoulders always loose their tension, my head always starts nodding, and my breathing always slows and deepens when listening. I'm not sure how, but Dub Syndicate manages to keep every song laid back while still applying gracious amounts of funk and groove.
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