Echo

Bedroom dub may as well be a genre on its own; it tends to be dub for the sake of dubbing and has as much in common with any number of tricked-out home studio projects regardless of genre. Echo, aka Adam Sloan, hails from Vancouver and this is his second release. There’s no fancy studio craft in this album just a four-track, a bass, some drum machines, keys and assorted noisemakers. But what a racket! Sloan takes on molasses slow and a few odd, up-tempo rhythms on his second release, piling on the effects until the grooves reach their breaking point. Sometimes there is so much dub that the tracks almost collapse into what seems like a mash-up of alternate mixes. Another important characteristic is the slightly out of time instrumental performances, which add a certain Jamaican "beat the clock” studio feel to the project, as though there wasn’t enough time to lay the bed tracks properly. The combo of digital technology and near-haphazard performance, augmented by psychedelic mixology, creates a great deal of personality. Bonus tracks rewind and re-launch some of the tunes at a slower tempo, à la DJ Screw. This one isn’t for the dancehall, unless your bedroom does double duty.