Killer Bong – TokyoDub (Power Shovel Audio)

Shadowy Tokyo underground hiphop / dub producer Killer Bong has previously released material both as a member of hiphop outfit Think Tank and alongside Sachi Hayasaka and Toshiki Nagata on John Zorn’ Tzadik label, and “TokyoDub’ represents his debut offering after going under a plethora of pseudonyms including Plantazia and Anal Fighter. While there are certainly shades of Zorn’s’jump-cut jazz flourishes amongst the chaotic turntablised samples of opening track “That’s The Very Thing I Want’, much of “TokyoDub’ comes across in a similar manner to a more dub-jazz obsessed incarnation of Daedelus, with contorted horns stretching their way through dense, narcotised-sounding beatscapes dotted with MPC-bashed samples. In fact, it sounds pretty much like exactly the sort of record you’d expect a guy with a domain titled www.blacksmoker.net to make, densely detailed, vaguely paranoiac and captivated by the interplay of repetitive loops, rather than headed in any particular direction. While there are some undeniably inspired moments packed in along the way, such as title track “TokyoDub’s rapid acceleration into bleeping electro-jazz beats, overall there’s a slight absence of complete cohesion and the creeping sense that things could have been trimmed down slightly.