Reggae charts

Review: Greyscale unveils its latest endeavour, the Spectrum Series, as a way to continue to evolve its offerings and this time it is with something that makes a vibrant departure from its traditional black-and-white aesthetic. The inaugural release features the iconic Lithuanian dub track 'Kasdienybes Sventykla' by grad_u & Eazystyle MC as a way of commemorating its 15th anniversary. It came as a double CD in 2011 but now gets a first vinyl pressing on a nice 10" slab of wax. The track itself taps into the earliest roots of dub in the 70s and traces a line through the 80s with its heavyweight drums and endlessly echoing bass topped by great mic work. A pared-back instrumental features on the flip of this latest crucial drop from the dub dons at Greyscale

Review: The Mysticisms label welcomes Coral D aka Duncan Stump for a debut outing here that marks the first new music to be part of the ongoing and most excellent Dubplate series. This artist has a long history of crafting "deep dub electronic swing" in his roles in Mock & Toof, FX Mchm and his 6000 Degrees project. This one finds him bringing some dub reggae influences as 'Dissolves' is built on a chugging rhythm with smeared chords. 'DR 55' is then a masterfully laidback digi-dub groove that warps space and time and so leaves you utterly hypnotised.

Review: After two utterly essential releases on ae Recordings and Primary Colours in 2021, Altone once more delivers the goods for Lempuyang. The label's eighth release brings together two of the most respected heads in the business on remix duties. Altone's deep & pulsing title track 'Vortex' gets Yagya's glacial treatment on the A-side. 'Customization' on the flip gets a Bluetrain rework; with Steve's trademark Special Edition Dub giving the track a dancefloor edge.

Review: Lempuyang's third offering is an outstanding split release between Steve O'Sullivan & Hydergine, label bosses for Mosaic/Bluetrain & Ranges. In 'Binary Riddim' Steve delivers a two-part dub track spanning >13 minutes, seriously heavy in the low end; melancholy strings in the first half, progressing to outright menacing chord stabs in the latter. A versatile track offering something for both warm-up and the dancefloor. Complimenting on the flip are 'Mystic Light' and 'Lunar Eclipse' from Hydergine. Deep, dubby atmospherics meander over a weighty 909 kick on B1. Subtle minimalism a la Terrence Dixon, pitched down on B2. Essential release!

Review: The intriguingly entitled Seafoam Fiction label serves up a second super good, super limited 12" that takes in Detroit style house, deeply atmospheric ambient cuts, and some leftfield styles, all from the founder SL Jung. 'A Cushioned Reminder' pairs curious melodies that have you gazing off to the distance with soft kicks and an implied deep house rhythm that seems to roll along the ocean floor. The equally unusual but enticing 'Blue Freak' has more weird and wonderful sounds making for a musical and perfectly reduced deep house mood piece. Last of all, 'Inland Delta' is slightly more traditional with a dusty kick clap combo and rolling drums overloaded with gorgeously molten melodies.

Review: Back in the early 2000s, Stefan Schwander (better known these days for his Harmonious Thelonious project) released a handful of fine 12" singles as A Rocket In Dub that successfully blurred the boundaries between minimal house and dub techno. Here, one of the series' most renowned cuts, 'Rocket No. 3', is revisited. Like the 2002 original mix, the A-side version is a hypnotic, softly spun delight, with echoing organ motifs, bubbly electronics, opaque synth sounds and new spoken word snippets (provided by fellow German artist Jan Delay) gently rising above a deep, dubby bassline and sparse, shuffling tech-house beats. Over on the flip, there's a dub style 'Version' mix that takes the track further into vintage Rhythm & Sound territory.

Review: They say that something done well is made to look easy, and Star Dub sure do make things look easy. Their neat artwork, limited 12" drops and considered dub techno sounds are all exceptionally well executed and now this is the 15th time they have pull off that trick. 'Track 1' is the deep and cavernous underwater opener, 'Track 2' stumbles on a nice broken beat vibe, 'Track 3' slows it down to pure heady late-night smoker territory and closer 'Track 4' is the darker and more experimental cut for the afters. This is dub, but not as you know it.