Artist:
A Hundred Drums
Title:
A Hundred Drums
Label:
Gravitas Recordings
Released:
14th February
Gabrielle
Watson’s self-titled album symbolises what she intends to
accomplish with her production. Choosing ‘A Hundred’ for it’s
spiritual and social importance, whilst ‘Drums’ call our hearts
to beat in sync. With this project Gabrielle aspires to align all
listeners heartbeats to her BPM, unifying us all in the music. We
beat with collective heart on the day celebrating love.
Gabrielle
s also a board member and facilitator with Shakti Sound, an
all-female DJ/Production retreat for beginners, which hopes to create
a movement that prioritizes accessibility and representation across
all cultures, demographics and backgrounds through workshops on
production, meditation, movement, press, promotion, social media etc.
Additionally, she is the founder of B-Sides an L.A. based production
company previously nominated as the best Dub-Step promoter by the
label Dubploc.
So
after the introduction how does it sound? We begin with ‘Shakti
Sound’ a short intro that is somewhat of a soundclash of
indidgenous tribal music and vintage film soundtracks, accompanied as
you may expect by tribal’esque drums that descends into an ambient
drone. This is followed by the Wicker Man themed ‘Circles’ feat.
James Xavier where the tribal drums plod along with eerie electronic
sounds, distorted vocals and touches of low frequency bass. The dark
theme remains on ‘Boogie Man’ where low bass and drum breaks roll
off Gabrielle’s haunting whispery vocals.
The
intro is more melodic on ‘Psy-Area’ before synth loops swirl
around the low frequency squelchy bass. Were back to that dark feel
with ‘Apex’ where the ticking clock fooled me into thinking the
bass was going to drop hard and heavy. However, it’s actually more
of a laid back dub-step piece. The Vibe Emissions mix of ‘Circles’
places emphasis on the heavy bass with a few licks of pacy rolling
drum loops. A more stereotypical dub-step track all in all. Then we
finish with the Leon Switch re-mix of Lord of Tings feat. Jayne Gray.
Which is my favourite Jayne’s lyrics set me in mind of Digable
Planets, fitting like a glove with the eerie atmospheric dub-step
behind.
To
summarise this isn’t stereotypical bass music or dub-step it’s
dark and experimental so will probably appeal to a niche audience.
That said I think the collaboration with Jayne Gray would appeal to a
wider audience and perhaps should be pursued further, if of course it
isn’t already.
Reviewed
by Woodzee
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