Solar Life Raft

We Say...

Review by Jess Harvell

Dubstep DJs may be bound by the ebb-and-flow of novelty but, thankfully, restless and omnivorous listeners can turn to folks like DJ/Rupture and Matt Shadetek, who have committed themselves to exploring the full breadth of 21st century beats and bass and beyond, reshaping these drum curiosities and swathes of rhythm-free ambiance to fit the idiosyncratic lurch-and-roll pulse of Solar Life Raft.

So while Solar Life Raft could be blurbed as a survey of post-millennial dub-inflected/influenced music, it's far too reductive to sell the mix as "for dub-heads only" just because you'll find wobbly basslines and reggae vocals. Sure, dubstep DJs might drool over certain tracks — check out Cardopusher's "Green Distorder," which opens with the most tantalizing blip of sun-hazy roots reggae before grinding into neo-jungle at half-tempo, complete with shrieking darkcore synths and bass to knot intestines. But Rupture and Shadatek turn restless when tracks get too easily genre-tagged. It's only by searching out the mutations and distant cousins and regional variations that they might, say, locate the dancehall-leaning lurch inside Gang Gang Dance's "Bebey," linking the tribal affectations of 21st-century art-rockers with unexpected digital kin worldwide.

Deeper listening on the part of DJs can turn up a wider-range of potentially interesting tracks, but it's only taste and (yes) craft that can weave those unexpected choices into something not only listenable, but beguiling, enduring, emotionally affecting. And whatever sounds/scenes/nations it draws from, Solar Life Raft is perhaps the most sinuous and immersive mix we'll hear all year, testament to Rupture and Shadatek's desire tickle the senses, wallow in beauty, and search out new rhythms. Many of the mix's most surprising moments have only the most tenuous connection to dub as a studio science — the delirious vocal overlaps of Nico Muhly's "Mother Tongue Pt. 1"; a brief but horror -inducing blast of musique concrete from Luc Ferrari — and it's these tracks that prove Rupture and Shadatek have devoted themselves to listeners' hips, hearts, and spines, rather than any scene-centric sense of "proper" sequencing.