Radioactive Sandwich 'Mirage Remixed' Review

Artist: Radioactive Sandwich

Title: Mirage Remixed

Label: Self Release

Released: 16^th December

After ten years of fusing global and psychedelic sounds with electronica RS have amassed an ever growing network of fellow producers. So they decided to offer their biggest selling album so far to a number of their friends and rising electronic musicians and this album is the result.

The release begins with a re-mix of 'Into the Desert' by themselves. The piece begins in a drone like manner creating a spacious feel around the accompanying tribal drums. The main body is a heady mix of spacey synth tones and dubbed out bass lines with some haunting interludes setting a good standard for their guests to live up to. Next up is the Space Jesus re-mix of 'A Broken Reality' a stop-start temple bass number which toys with both the harmonious eastern vocal and fx in the obligatory manner to reach the desired effect.

While Audioglider changes the mood and takes 'An Echo is a Shadow of Sound' into the realms of Balearic chill. The piece chugs along nicely between the elongated and beatless vocal breakdown … lovely stuff. The style then switches back again with Essek's  re-work of 'Sullen Choirboy' where dirty dub-step intermittently pokes it's ugly head above a chilled out backdrop.

Kurbeat's take on 'Sigogglin' builds a crescendo early on but jumps ship before the peak toying with the acoustics Balkan and reggae sounds in a twisted yet fluid manner. Whereas Supersillyus delivers a lush slice of psy-dub with his re-work of 'Time Dilation' which in places felt reminiscent of Warp Technique. Once again there's plenty of toying around with the vocal samples and lush harmonies resulting in a sterling version.

The mood switches once again with Skytree and Jake Spikes re-interpretation of 'Bhagwan' a dark carnatic hip-hop fusion with psychedelic, pagan and alien themed lyrics. A combination that rarely fails for me. The album then winds down with the RS duo again on 'Leaving the Desert' an outro of drone like fuzzy low frequency ambience and sparse piano bass notes with distorted prayers.

Pre-order and also receive an exclusive bonus track 'Mirage Remixed (Sliced Up and Slowed Down)'

Reviewed by Woodzee.

Links

https://radioactivesandwich.bandcamp.com/

Deep Fried Dub 'Stir Fried E.P.' Review

Artist: Deep Fried Dub

Title: Stir Fried E.P.

Label: Dubmission

Released: 
Digital ... 11^th November
CD ... 15th December

A year after the release of their album 'Slow Cooked' the duo from down under have finally announced the release of the re-mixes from that album on Dubmission Records.

The starter for this five course meal is Mislead Convoy's Luminosity re-mix of 'Shine' which takes the track down the darker corridors of dub and although there are slightly different themes within the track, for me it loses the soul and vibrancy of the original.

The bpm's drop with Nahuati Jaguar's take of 'Kaos' an atmospheric piece where percussively at times the odd drum & bass rolls are injected. However, once again it's not really grabbing me.

Numatica take on 'Submerge' is an interesting combination of classical stringed ska with slower passages of acoustic fused reggae. I found this quite an original sound and it was pleasing to the ear.

Meeting by Chance's re-mix of 'Kryptology' balances this traditional sounding melodica laden dub with a slow paced yet pounding beat that would have worked well on a Roman war galley.

'100 Ire' prepared by E.R.S. who wastes little time in releasing the groove overlaid with hypnotic keys and fx that balance nicely with the vocal reggae snippets. This is definitely the most upbeat track of the e.p. and works well enough for me.

Overall this isn't a bad e.p. but on the whole it doesn't offer too much that grabs me over the original. The biggest disappointment for me was the exclusion of 'Snake Oil' which was my favourite on the album.

Reviewed by Woodzee.

Links http://www.deepfrieddub.com/