Brooklyn-based dub / dancehall producer David Last divides his time between a plethora of creative activities that includes making his own visual artwork, collaborating with Japanese tech-house producer Segeke as Pocket Pet, and performing live with his own instrumental dub groups Solids and Dub-Amp. This second album Musically Massive on Staubgold follows on from his downtempo-oriented 2005 debut The Push Pull on DJ Olive’s TheAgriculture label, and sees Last collaborating with Chicago-based ragga MC Zulu, last seen teaming up with Ghislain Poirier on last year’s ‘Go Ballistic’ single. It’s also a distinctly more extrovert affair than its predecessor, with the twelve tracks here (apparently recorded between Chicago, Brooklyn and Sydney) centering firmly around a bouncing digi-dancehall pulse in the vein of fellow Brookyn-ite Dub Gabriel and the aforementioned Ghislain Poirier.
While there’s certainly plenty of hefty rhythmic snap to be found amidst the buzzing sub-bass bursts and flexing, angular breakbeats of ‘Ghettoblaster’ and ‘Ever Ready’s midtempo ragga-hiphop collision of eerie piano keys and clicking electro rhythms though, Last never really sends things off into the terrorising bass frequencies favoured by those aforementioned peers, preferring instead to build a sense of sheeny synthetic groove. Elsewhere, ‘Exhibition Virtue’ sees more jazzy vibes coming to the foreground, amidst skittering broken programmed rhythms and Zulu’s fluid verbal ragga flow in an offering that flirts with garage / grime influences with inspired results, before ‘Spanish Fly’ gears things straight towards the dancefloor with a techno-Baile Funk hybrid that proves far more interesting than the majority of Major Lazer’s recent uber-hyped effort. ‘Put Me On Your Guest List’s meanwhile sees CX Kidtronik and Maharani adding vocal and production input to a streamlined, dark and bass-heavy blend of sinister machine rhythms and ragga toasting that’s easily one of this album’s biggest standout highlights, detached robotic female backing vocals and all. While ‘Musically Massive’ doesn’t exactly see David Last and Zulu pushing the established electro-dancehall envelope too far, fans of Ghislain Poirier’s similarly electro-bashment tinged bass outings should find much to enjoy here.
Chris Downton
