Macro Dub Infection Vol. 1 POLL

The consensus pick in 1995 would have been the Tortoise remix, but that track never did much for me. I'm stuck between Bandulu and Spring Heel Jack ... I spent way too much time listening to later SHJ albums before I finally accepted that they'd never again sound as good as they do on "Double Edge Dub". And Bandulu are awesome here, as always.

times being what they are radar...

I remember the Bedouin Ascent track being great, even if I never heard anything else by them. The Coil and Laika tracks are great too.

It's between Bandulu and SHJ for me too, and I went for SHJ. I've never liked this comp all that much, to be honest--I realize dub is what it is, and I have a good sized taste for it, but most of MDI wandered too much for me.

Vol. 2 is much better. From this one I'd probably go with Scorn or New Kingdom.

Bedouin Ascent just nudges out Tortoise and 4 Hero.

chose bud alzir because i vaguely remember it. i may be thinking of another bud alzir track tho. haven't listened to these comps in ages.

i was more into INCURSIONS IN ILLBIENT

tempted to vote for bud alzir also ... that's the one with the sick horn hook, right?

and if you guys think these are boring comps, how about mysteries of creation?

I remember buying this and going nuts trying to find (in the days before file sharing) the Weatherall remix of MBV's "Soon" that was mentioned in the liner notes. There was also his description of Aba Shanti (something to the effect of "MBV dubbed out with ten thousand chimes at twenty thousand leagues under the sea", I am probably remembering this completely wrong but whatever) and I was all "how do I get me some of THAT??"

I still really like this comp. Digital dub (Rootsman, Disciples, Iration Steppas, Mad Professor) sounds better now than it did at the time. New Kingdom, Laika, Tortoise tracks are all among my favorites of their stuff.

Strangely I've never heard the sequel.

tempted to vote for bud alzir also ... that's the one with the sick horn hook, right?

it's some weird kind of cod-egyptian thing with a weird, watery loop that could be from an om khalsoum record or something. i'm actually downloading an album by these guys - i had no idea they ever got around to doing one!

I was all "how do I get me some of THAT??"

seriously - most overhyped comp has the most overhype-ing liner notes

gonna liveblog my listen

1st impressions - LOL buggy g riphead

the disciples, spring heel jack - annoyingly trebly, near beatless torpor

two badcard - okay this is more like it. the vocals are annoyingly fruity but i like the thick drum rolls and the bassline has a nice post-house feel to it. also love the thick, lush pads that float over everything else. if we're going to evaluate this comp as an entry point to reggae for IDM nerds so far this is the winner.

automaton - okay this is a pretty good dub, by king tubby standards circa 1970 or something. how did something this rudimentary get on here i wonder.

bedouin ascent - this is a SICK track. predates and predicts dubstep by what, 10 years? then again it also goes to show how little dubstep really has to do with dub. it's just slowed-down jungle, isn't it? great echoey seagull noises in the background over the half-speed breaks, though. would have fit in great on "headz 2".

oh jeez oh man this is so awful, every bone in my body telling me to get up and turn it off. quit with the fucking reverbed snares!

seriously why does every british mid-80s industrial "stepper" dub track have the same awful booop booop booop boop booooooop booop bassline?

i like the coil track, it's nice that he brings the hip and the hop with that mid-90s boyz ii men drum break

omni trio is okay but why are the strings and such so damn emo on this and the SHJ track? any minute i expect a newscaster to start talking about poverty. i like the second half where everything clears out a bit and you can hear the interplay of the bass a little more with the rest of the track.

laika track is amazing but what does it have to do with dub? reminds me of the passengers soundtrack or an underworld track circa "second toughest...". so you could make a comp of tracks like that and what would it be called? prob nothing to do with dub.

new kingdom is like a roots manuva track without roots manuva which is of course an improvement. i like it, reminds me of early 90s ruffneck ragga influenced hip hop. but then it disappoints, because why aren't smif n wessun rapping over it?

tortoise, sorry to say, the first indispensable track on the comp. can't imagine life without this track. not as good as "the source of uncertainty" but def one of their better "abstract" moments. so far the clear leader.

skull vs ice is spooky but of course again sounds more like something you'd hear on a headz comp than dub. speaking of which, trevor jackson *was* on both headz comps, right?

also LOL skulls, ice, coldness, gothness, etc

I don't think that the word "Dub" in the title was meant to be taken so literally ... there are plenty of tracks here that, strictly speaking, aren't dub but contain dub elements (e.g. Laika). And that was the point of the comp -- it's like a mixtape with a bunch of different styles all loosely grouped under the umbrella of dub. In that sense it was also reasonable to try to shoehorn MBV and a bunch of otherwise unrelated bands into the essays in the liner notes.

Although oddly enough, MDI vol 2 was MUCH more dubby, "conventionally" speaking.

listening to this comp always makes me wonder whatever happened to Earthling...one great LP and then poof!

one great LP, one pretty-good LP, then poof.

Earthling has the ten minute final track with the uh "rappin'" on it, no? Finding it hard to believe they made a great LP.

"omni trio is okay but why are the strings and such so damn emo on this and the SHJ track?"

Um it was the times?

premillenium tension, LOL

need more info on this second Earthling LP, please...

yes, "rappin'"...

earthling bloke contributed to the two telepopmusik albums.

"need more info on this second Earthling LP, please..."

According to Discogs it came out in '04 after being shelved in '97.

talk about a lack of promo...hey, the thing's even got Ray Manzarek on it!

pulled out Humandust today, because i honestly couldn't remember a thing about it. Manzarek's on two tracks. it's a pretty good album. more of the same, only not as much fun as Radar. that may be why it has failed to leave as lasting an impression.

Still Tortoise for me and still surprising because I never liked a single other thing they recorded (Millions Now Living Will Never Die remains one of my biggest musical disappointments of the 1990s).

And thanx to Ioannis (I think) for replacing my stolen (grrrrrr) copy!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

damn i should've voted for new kingdom

the Legion of Two album on Planet Mu totally sounds like something from one of these comps. live drummer and synthy, jungley basslines and shrieking noises.