Despite its distinctly psytrance-y looking digitally rendered sleeve art complete with classic ambient jellyfish, the predominant focus of this latest compilation from Portland, Oregon downbeat electronic label Native State (responsible for last year’s excellent Beneath The Surface collection) falls upon the more overtly electronic end of the dub spectrum. Compiled by Native State’s Naasko, the twelve unmixed tracks collected together on Bioluminescence come from a roster of artists as diverse in geographic location as they are in their own individual takes on the dub form. While there are certainly some predictable inclusions featured, such as Naasko’s own collaboration alongside Noah Pred as Sympath and a worthy appearance from Native State founder Evan Bluetech, the remainder of the tracklisting here features contributions from artists as geographically distant from one another as New Zealand (in the case of Pitch Black) and Berlin (Vakuum Sounds).
While krill.minima’ “Kronen Dab’ opens this collection with an abstracted wash of dub-delayed out electronics that calls to mind Pole’ deep subaquatic synthscapes, the emergence of a warm, suspiciously live-sounding dub bassline signals a turn towards distinctly more human-touched sounding waters in the vein one of G-Stone’s smoked out nocturnal excursions. Though the presence of intricately-programmed electronic elements in the vein of ~Scape’s dub-tinged explorations continues to rear its head throughout much of this collection, the decidedly warm basslines prove to be the glue that holds proceedings together, preventing things from ever becoming too abstracted or impenetrable. Selffish’s “Easy Mr. Palmer’ represents perhaps the one divergence away from distinctly dub-centred sounds here, offering a smooth downbeat electro glide through streamlined night-drive synth tones and stripped-back, clicking microrhythms, while Deadbeat (aka Scott Monteith) offers up characteristically excellent reworking of Shen’s “Embrace’ that pushes things towards flickering laptop dancehall – despite a slightly obtrusive vocal appearance from Canadian pop singer Kinnie Starr that sticks out like a sore thumb amongst this otherwise instrumental collection.
Pitch Black meanwhile certainly manage to whet the appetite for their imminent new Rude Mechanical album with “Transient Transmission’ , neatly counterpointing the sense of underlying menace generated by their dense web of dark electronics with an unexpectedly reassuring Augustus Pablo-esque melodica solo that drags things towards calmer waters. All things considered, Bioluminescence is another excellent compilation offering from Native State that also easily represents one of the most consistently strong dub / downbeat collections I’ve heard in quite a while.
Chris Downton
