Habitat Sound vs. Dub Traffik Control – Murder on Golden Hill
Reviewed by Sadie O., 1/21/11
UK-style live sound system modern dub trio (from San Diego), UK steppers, dubstep, psychedelia. Did I mention dub? Very dubby dub. Stick your earballs up into this and get all woogly. I have to laugh, because the tracks are in pairs with the song followed by the dub, but the songs are what most folks would consider dubs, and the dubs take off from there…
Can’t make out most vocals, didn’t catch any FCCs. ALL GREAT.
1. 3:39 ** beep intro, then downtempo electronic skank with muted vocals, bits of sax, assorted groovy noises.
2. 4:50 ***same as above, only even dubbier.
3. 3:05 ***industrial hissy intro, then downtempo dub with a kinda sneaky vibe to it. Menacing far-away vocals, hint of melodica. And crashes and squingles.
4. 5:01 *** far-away voices and boppy little beat, sort of like the heartbeat of an extremely startled rabbit. Rather low-key, but full of sounds.
5. 2:54 **** beeps and clangs and very slow dub crawl. Snaky and nice. In fact, it’s perfect. I crown this track Princess.
6. 3:59 ***woobles and strangeness. There’s a slow beat, but the rest of it is nice and wormy and oogly.
7. 3:50 ***shaker and downtempo bubbly dubble. Actually kinda… pretty. Kinda.
8. 5:25 **similar to prior track, but slower and underwater. Ends with several seconds of drips.
9. 2:57 **** rather jaunty sightly downtempo echo-laden electronic swishy skank. Kinda goofy far-off vocals and bit of riddim that’s really familiar and I can’t quite place, dammit.
10. 4:38 ***nonsense echo-y vocals, electronic metal machine skank. You can shake your metal butt to it!