Krikor Kouchian - Pacific Alley In Dub

  • The shapeshifting producer reworks tracks from his excellent 2017 album.
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  • Sometime in the late 2000s, I slept over at a friend's house after a night out at the local bars. There were a few of us sprawled across an upstairs apartment's living room. I woke up in dead of night to hear Lee Perry's Return Of The Super Ape ringing out in the pitch-black room. The record ended but the delayed drums and haunting chords seemed to hang in the humid air before someone got up and started the record over. Thinking back, it felt like my personal Damascus moment with the atmospheric mysticism of dub. It's safe to assume the French Touch alumnus Krikor Kouchian has had a few of those. His latest EP for L.I.E.S., Pacific Alley In Dubs, comprises crafty versions of tracks from his 2017 Pacific Alley LP, finding a middle-ground between the original Jamaican dub template and its New York garage house continuation, carried out by the likes of Larry Levan and Timmy Regisford. These cuts are the rhythmic inverse of Pacific Alley's soundscapes, which mixed vaporwave, synthfunk and soundtrack music. "Slow Riddim" strips down "Raw Deal'"s hypnagogic synths, building up towering columns of heavily delayed toms and snares. (That one mixes well with the dancehall-flavoured opener from Raime's latest.) Halftime riddims like "Snow Dub" will appeal to fans of Tapes's slo-mo approach. On "Onda Dub" and "Plomo Riddim," Kouchian trades the nostalgic synths of the originals ("Onda Vaselina," "Plomo O Plomo") for roots-inflected basslines. "Onda Dub," with its rich atmosphere and jacking snare, feels like a class warm-up track, as if Adonis sent one of his early tracks down to Black Ark Studios for a B-side version.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Slow Riddim A2 Deserver Dub A3 Snow Dub B1 Hermano Dub B2 Onda Dub B3 Plomo Riddim
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