Roots and Wire is a wide-scope ambient dub excursion by Montreal/Berlin based artist Deadbeat.
Infused with the sticky, saturated atmosphere of an equatorial chill-out session, you’d be forgiven for assuming the ‘ambient’ part of the tag implies a sleepy listen. But you’d be wrong – a cornucopia of propulsive beats will get even the most lackadaisical set of hips shaking when the volume is set at a proper level. This is an album residing happily on a dance floor or your headphones. It’s the perfect soundtrack for a long drive at night.
Bookended by two tracks featuring wistful reggae vocals of Tikiman, the space between contains all manner of touchstones from dancehall to minimal techno laid upon a deeply dub underpinning. The standout track for me is a an all-out percussion assault named Grounation (Berghain Drum Jack), which reminds me of Gas remixing a Boredoms banger – an exciting revelation.
With a structured flow and unified aesthetic, this sound is made for full-album listening. Once the last track fades out for the first time, the pervasive impression left is of a massive jewel of dub mastery, each track a different facet shot through with the same brilliant light.
Pick this up at amazon and make sure to check out Wagon Repair and Deadbeat’s myspace.
Damn fine
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Dude, this is very good. It’s catchy, easy on the ears, even chilled out at some points. The samples are neatly crafted into perfect melodies. I dig it man.
Hope he makes another album as good as this one.
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