Dub Gabriel, Bass Jihad (Azra)

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The second solo release by Dub Gabriel is a heady, bin-shaking brew. Having "interned" with Bill Laswell, Professor Shehab and other leading lights of the "Crooklyn Dub" sound, Gabriel emerged a couple of years ago with a fully-fledged, unique style on Ascend. His sophomore effort, Dub Jihad, only proves that his wings continue to bear him aloft.

The edge is often taken off heavy electronic beats by pairing them with tablas and other acoustic percussion, and the bass is always thick and juicy. Gabriel´s inspiration has been culled not only from Williamsburg and Jamaica, but also the Subcontinent and the Middle East, as a survey of his sidemen´s instruments would indicate - bazantar, ney, saz. However, he puts it all together with totally Western technology and software.

Nevertheless, there is nary a heartless, cold sound here. A clever producer, Gabriel conjures a swirling, kalaidescopic world, mixing up jamming sitars and an African beat with sampled German smalltalk; slow, illbient beats underpinning drifting qawwali moans and ghostly, Nils Petter Molvaer-like trumpet; and heavy organ saturating the sound over which meek wind instruments struggle to make themselves heard. And just for fun, an MC is thrown into the mix a couple of times, too.

Intoxicating, living, breathing dub which embraces the world.