Al Wootton - Every Knee Shall Bow

  • Heavyweight dub techno.
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  • Every time I put on "Every Knee Shall Bow" from Al Wootton's newest 7-inch on dub institution ZamZam Sounds, I look twice at the pitch control make sure it's not playing too fast. At a swift 135 BPM, it rushes past the tempo we're used to for modern dub techno—which I'm almost hesitant to call it. It's simple math, though: there's the dub, with a stoned, reverb-drenched chord, and there's the techno in the form of a plodding beat. The low-end shreds through the otherwise chilled-out atmosphere, and if the wall of white noise at thee drop could tear up any big room, the steppy heavyweight maelstrom that follows would elicit a lot of confused faces. It's as if both influences are in a tug of war to yank the tune away from the other.
RA