Jahtari release some great stuff. In this world of declining record sales and labels going out of business, they seem to be doing things right too. Jahtari started out as a net-label, releasing the cutting edge of digital dub (in the reggae sense, this was years before dubstep!) as MP3s to a small but growing community. Slowly they started to release “actual product” in the shape of 7″ and 12″ vinyl to a hungry market. Most of their releases are limited and become collectors items soon after issuing.
Jahtari’s latest release is from Black Chow, an eerily bleak slice of bass heavy riddim from none other than Kevin Martin (The Bug, King Midas, Techno Animal) in collaboration with King Midas and Dokkebi Q vocalist Kiki Hitomi. Wonderland opens with the title track which first appeared on last years massive Jahtarian Dubbers Volume 2 compilation. ‘Wonderland’ is a lurchingly heavy piece of future bass music, echo laden synth lines blur with delay tails on the snare hits that melt into the universe, all the while underpinned by a seriously heavy bassline that just begs to be pushing air from a rig of 18″ woofers. On this release it is matched with a stripped back dub version which tries to push itself into the ether even more than the vocal cut. Rounding out side A is another vocal cut by the outstanding French deejay (in Jamaican parlance, not someone who plays records, that is the selector, of course) Pupajim who in my books can’t do a thing wrong. I’ve yet to hear him voice a bad tune. His cut on the “Wonderland” riddim is the evocative “Signs” appearing in between the original version and the dub. This track placement is perfect as Pupajim’s vocals stretch out to beyond with this “bass-opera” as it is described in the press release. Pupajim takes his melody line from the popular “Ring The Alarm” and rides most of the riddim in a ghostly style, drenched in reverb, echoing that past, present and future. He occasionally breaks into his trademark toasting style, but spends most of the song echoing the vast spaciousness of the riddim before the whole track explodes off into a cosmic vortex.
Side B brings us “Danger” and its dub “Danger Version” once again with Kiki Hitomi at the vocal helm. “Danger” is a stripped back Casio-driven riddim that puts me more in mind of some of The Bug’s more minimal tracks. While Hitomi’s voice cuts through the reverb tails on the snare like a knife, it is the dub version on offer here that really makes the mind melt. While not being particularly worried about “traditional” dub techniques, “Danger Version” softens the harshness of the VL-Tone style Casio melody and drenches the whole piece in atmosphere. The LFO’s are tweaked pushing the bass towards dubstep territory, but still manages to stay just on this side of the Digital Laptop Reggae line that Jahtari pushes. Sounding like a conversation between some underwater video game from the 80s and an outmoded satellite beaming back garbled signals to Earth “Danger” and its version leave me waiting for a full length release from Black Chow.
Jason Heller
