Audio Obscura - Acid Field Recordings in Dub

Released: April 26

Acid Field Recordings in Dub is kind of an oddity of an album. It simultaneously manages to be incredibly chill and laid back while also being disorienting and weird. As far as what genre it claims to be, well the name says it quite perfectly. There's touches of acid tech in there which some squelching 303 bass lines in there with a number of varied and intertwined field recordings. All of which sit on top of a foundation of dub rhythms complete with the heavy notes of beat synced delay on drums and guitars. In respect to the field recordings, there sure is a lot going on - everything from rain, sirens, voices, birds - Neil really went all out with packing as much ear candy in as he could without overwhelming everything else. We even get a nice little melodica part on "Hollowlands" courtesy of Simon McCorry. 

From the very first track, we get a sense of what we are in store for. It opens up with a siren and a voice telling us this is just a test, quite fitting for a track named "Through Nuclear Skies." But aside from this the track starts off rather slow and plodding until the first drum hits are heard and then that squelched bass line comes in. There's also a clever bit of layering in the bass line as a deep sub bass hit counters the higher-pitched 303, giving the track a nice little bit of boom for those of you who prefer to have the bass rattle your head. 

Later in the album, the aforementioned "Hollowlands" comes up and is probably one of my favorite tracks on the album. It is probably the closest we come to a straightforward dub track, but that melodica brings something else to it. It almost feels like a dub meets blues feeling as the McCorry hits a couple of sad notes here and there but keeps things upbeat for the most part. This track also makes heavy use of storm field recordings with thunder rumbling and crashing throughout the track. It might be a little on the nose to say but this is a perfect rainy day feel of a track. It's a about to rain here as I type and I am tempted to put this track on a loop. But the whole album is a fun combination of genre tropes and lots of innovative additions. The dub rhythms feature heavily on just about every track and provide a base in which some more unexpected things come into play.