Marnie

Haunting vocals by British singer Deborah Quinoah lend a Latin touch to this unique and well-executed exercise in acid jazz-dub fusion. Crashing and orchestral at times, melodic and almost sweet at others, the music (written and produced by Nigel Smith) keeps your head nodding with thick and chunky live bass sounds as it hovers on the line between trip-hop and dub. The instrumentation is very well orchestrated and organised, with a healthy balance of live jazzy samples and the strange effects very common in British electronic dub music (i.e. Mad Professor and Dub Syndicate). Tracks like “August,” “Tierra Madre” and “Sweet Bing Cherries” stand out as examples of the Tricky-esque sound made popular in the last couple of years. While “First and Last” and the dub versions of some of the other songs bring the focus back to the dubby, down-tempo vibe. Look out for Sinistral recordings — they are off to a strong start indeed.