Dadub 'You Are Eternity' [SACD003] by Stroboscopic Artefacts

‘You Are Eternity’ is the third album to be released on Stroboscopic Artefacts and comes from two of the minds who have shaped the label since its earliest days: Dadub. Recorded over a period of two years, but containing fragments and ideas that stretch back a decade ‘You Are Eternity’ has been mixed together to form a continuous piece rather than twelve discreet tracks. The effect? An immersive journey that encompasses the descriptors brutal, ferocious, ambient and aqueous.

It would be easy to describe the album’s structure as that of two halves, but it’s not that simple. The structure that Dadub has developed is cyclical at its most compliant, and elliptical at its most oblique. Within these forms the sounds that emerge run the gamut of electronic music. ‘Existence’ and ‘Unbroken Continuity’ explore futuristic, atmospheric states. ‘Path’ swaggers with rippled dub. Embedded into ‘Truth’ is a polemic sample of Henry Waxman questioning Alan Greenspan. And the same record houses ‘Transfer’, a staunch cut that’s more than fortified to do some damage.

In the studio Dadub’s process is nothing short of alchemical. Their characteristic sound originates from entirely digital sources, but their sound treatments reanimate this raw material filling it with warmth and human emotion. The source loops and synthesised lines are run through countless channels and complex chains of effects to arrive at a destination unrecognisable from the points of origin. Dadub are true sound materialists.

Knowing that Dadub place so much emphasis on process, it’s all the more interesting to hear their collaborations with other artists and ‘You Are Eternity’ is graced by fellow SA cohort Edit Select, the sound experimenter Øe and Ninja Tunes stalwart King Cannibal. It is indeed King Cannibal who teamed up for the album’s most ferocious cut ‘Transfer’. Whereas ‘Experience’ ft. Øe is a hazy slither of atmospherica. And the only straight kick of the entire record is to be found on the track with the most elusive subject matter, ‘Death’ ft. Edit Select, a collaborative elegy on the ultimate unknown. ‘You Are Eternity’ tends towards spaces that are undefined, that are unquantifiable - this album is a foray into Jenseits.

The album title hints at the almost spiritual origins of the album, Dadub’s search for music that goes further, that spreads away from the confines of the time and place in which we find ourselves, music that seeps into the cavern of the eternal. Tucked into ‘Vibration’, the very first track, is a sample of the Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. He leans close and says: Music is a spiritual gift, and those who misuse it, die young. Sage words. ‘You Are Eternity’ is a record that refuses to take any chances, Dadub are clearly producers intent on being around for quite some time.

Words: Clare Molloy

Tracklisting:

1. Vibration
2. Truth
3. Life
4. Path
5. Circle [feat. Edit Select]
6. Death
7. Transfer [feat. King Cannibal]
8. Arrival
9. Unbroken Continuity
10. Experience [feat. Øe]
11. Existence
12. Iridescent Fragment