About this item

Deep, deep stuff on the debut album from K Wata. Long and dubwise, dark and detailed. With bass that fills and warms a space.

All noir. Cast shadows against the wall. Weight being shifted and distributed with singularly delicate poise, like a knife being balanced on the end of a finger.

There’s a silvery, loose flow state to this record that maybe reveals the way some tracks were first written to be deployed live at Sustain Release 2025. Then taken back to the lab and tightened up further into the album’s final form, with beautiful mixing work between Kenzo and Chris Botta.

With that in mind, "Give U Space" unfolds slowly and fluidly, giving the listener the chance to access and open up to the deepness of the sound, being led down a path. It rolls and builds momentum and groove, and ratchets tensions up toward peaks of energy "Whisper Dub" and "There Will Be Love".

The tunes feel architectural. Rooms to be in and settle into. Simultaneously stripped back and then etched with neat little details and characterful or atmospheric sound choices. The silhouette of slo-mo Memphis and Houston trap is a leading influence, especially with the drums. Mixing with bits of click’n’cut sampling and psychoacoustic tricks, the penumbra of dub techno and drowsier dubstep, and SG’s soft vocals rising in the ether.

The presence and inspiration of the soundsystem is obvious in all of Kenzo’s work, the music can rattle when spun up louder or blended into the club. But K Wata’s uniqueness and signature comes from an often equally inward facing quality, touched by distance and longing and a sort of chiaroscuro incandescent light set up.

Written and produced by K Wata.
Mixed by K Wata and Christopher Botta at Fer Sound Studio.
Vocals on “Give You Space” and “Go” by SG.
Clarinet on “Radio Embrace” by Eugene Lai.
Mastered and cut by Mike Grinser at Manmade.
Art by S. Gong

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Altough not strictly a traditional dub album. This spacious, cerebral, bass heavy excursion from K Wata will also nicely next to other avant dub merchants a la The Bug, Ghost Dubs, Dub Surgeon et al. Incredibly detailed and dynamic, with real precision to each and every sound.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Looking Glass
A2. Give U Space
B1. I Gotta
B2. Whisper Dub
C1. Radio Embrace
C2. Go
D1. There Will Be Love
D2. As I’ve Always Said