Daega Sound - 11C

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  • Vancouver's Daega Sound make for a rather convenient microcosm of the conflicting forces at work in the city's unique melting pot of dub music. On the one hand, they're almost meditatively traditionalist (at least when they make dubstep). But there's something profoundly psychedelic and experimental about their sound design. It's that push-and-pull between idol worship and futurism that defines Vancouver's bustling electronic music scene, and the first release on Daega's brand new Fathom imprint could hardly be a better example. These tracks have the studied intensity of the best of old Pinch or Digital Mystikz, where every lurching hit is packed to the brim with laser-focused bassweight, but they're dressed up in the steel-plated sci-fi of Scuba. Pulled underwater by an electrified current of churning-in-place LFO, "Oupost" never quite comes up for air, its ominous horns and pads gracefully pumping through a tangibly viscous atmosphere. The steady progression owes something to techno, and the eerie strings that commiserate in the backdrop sound like leftovers from some forgotten jungle dubplate. The track's forward propulsion is given a rocket boost in the trippy surge of "11C," which prefers a steady progression over grounded LFO convulsion. As it determinedly chugs forward it floats past a litany of tiny, luminescent sounds. It's a confident first release, finding surprising freedom in a defined template and dressed to the nines in expert sound design.
  • Tracklist
      A 11c B Outpost
RA