- Dubwise experiments from the UK shapeshifter.
- Oscar Henson, AKA Facta, is something of a scholar of British dance music. He cut his teeth, like many of his peers in the mid-2010s, fusing garage and dubstep with 4/4 house templates. His production CV—not to mention his work A&Ring Wisdom Teeth alongside co-conspirator K-Lone—reads like a mini-history of the past ten years of the best bottom-heavy tunes coming from the British Isles: Idle Hands, Tempa, Livity Sound. His debut LP, 2021's Blush, revealed a different side of his UK knowledge, marrying classic Warp electronica with Autonomic-style drum & bass. His latest EP, landing on transatlantic outfit Incienso, expands that repertoire by bringing dub into the fold.
Emeline presents dub four ways, spanning from slo-mo chugs to straight-up tech house. It's the latter that makes for the EP's best track. Henson gave us a taste of his techy inclinations on 2020's "Doves," but there he was working with the European reinterpretations of the genre—think Perlon. Here he pays homage to the genre's London origins (lest we forget Terry Francis's first EP was called Dubtown), by laying down a rubbery groove and sinewy lead line that threatens to burst out of the smoke-filled afters.
The whole EP takes the reverb and echo of classic dub and pairs them with the high-definition synth leads that make up much of contemporary UK club music. On "Mirage," for example, he lets the glossy melody do the legwork while the dub chords waft low in the mix. "Sick Pup" is coated in a veneer of dub before the mechanical squeaks of his synthesizers pop through. At 100 BPM, "Sick Pup" recalls last year's excellent compilation from Wisdom Teeth, and is the sort of track that I could imagine Objekt and Lena Wilikens being equally excited about. Emeline is another essential release from a producer who can make any genre uniquely his own.
Tracklist01. Emeline
02. Felt
03. Mirage
04. Sick Pup