ABOUT THIS ITEM

Mark Ernestus seems to pioneering a completely new, nartural progression of the dark Berlin sound at the moment, using all his knowledge as Basic Channel's roots / dub maestro. The direction is taking roots and African music and rubbing it up, ever-so-slightly, for the darkest of nightclubs. The first obvious choice for this new sound would be Konono No.1 - a modern day African band using electronically manipulated, traditional instruments and creating trance-like, tribal soundscapes that are both rootsical and contextual. So far we've seen Burnt Friedman and Shackleton apply their western production styles to the Congotronics sound but here Ernestus gets his big German mits and brings us two sides of completely new music rooted in African tradition. "Masikulu Dub" is like a bass train, polyrhythms of sub bass (all well below 180hz) provide a bone-shaking groove while elements of Konono No.1's vocal chants can be heard echoing across the mix. Ernestus's magical touch is very organic and subtle (as you'd expect), and he keeps the hypnotic, tribal feel of the original completely intact. I'm absolutely gutted I can witness the shear destructive power of this record in somewhere like Berghain, I bet this is tearing the place a new arsehole as we speak! (at 3PM on a Saturday afternoon too no less!) On the flip we get "Masikulu Rhythm" which is even more stripped back, releying mainly on the sub polyrhythms I mentioned early. Perfect for teasing in the original in a long minimal Berlin-esque mix, or using as a tribal DJ tool. Surely this MUST be in Villalobos' record box...? One of the most exciting things to happen to dub techno in a lonnnnng time, don't sleep!