Bristol based outernational dub specialists Bokeh Versions are set to release “Lucid Dream” EP from Tokyo based producer Mars89. Coming on like a twisted grime reinterpretation of the Solaris soundtrack, Lucid Dream is perhaps the darkest, sparsest release on Bokeh to date.
If 2016 signaled the arrival of the label’s parallel dub mythology with releases from the likes of Jay Glass Dubs, Abu Ama and Seekersinternational, 2017 seems to be the year that owner/NTS DJ Miles Opland is exploring the tangents, roots and offshoots of that mythology. The recent releases of Tradition’s Captain Ganja and the Space Patrol, and Rer Repeater’s In Fine Style working alongside Mars89’s EP to show just how far this trippy dub universe stretches.
Lucid Dream’s 8 tracks are ominously slow and cavernously spacious. Beats sitting somewhere between tribal and industrial play under hard-cut samples, vague synth lines and decontextualised vocals. Like The Haxan Cloak’s Excavation, it engages with the supernatural voices within dub’s echoes and bass wobbles, but for Mars89 these voices come as much from the cosmos as the occult.
Mars89’s work has an exoticism to it that transcends any identity of country or region, the deep rhythm at the heart of the tracks giving them the feel of a futurist’s dancehall record. Our premiere “OOBE” is the point where the EP seems to coalesce – the most dancefloor friendly, it ties incredibly precise drum patterns with a spell like melody line and bird noise ambience. Shamanic ritual as soundsystem banger.
Lucid Dream is set for release on C40 and digital on 16th June 2017, order a copy from Bandcamp.
TRACKLIST
1. Intro
2. Poltergeist
3. Sensory Deprivation
4. Shaman’s House
5. Bandersnatch
6. Biological Tides
7. OOBE
8. Outro
Discover more about Mars89 and Bokeh Versions on Inverted Audio.