Morpheus Music
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Mar 31, 2011 14:18:28
STYLE
March 2011
Positive electronic downtempo dub.
Kukan Dub Lagan here remixes his 2004 album Life Is Nice. The tracks are distinctly different from the originals, clearly having been approached with artistic freedom and creative improvisation. The trademark Kukan Dub Lagan approach still permeates everything - lazy, summer reggae beats and nodding chord stabs with colourful synthetic melodies. The rhythmic material is considerably varied: deep rubbery basses driving some pieces; some alive with programmed grooves, sharp blips and echoing squirts; others having more of a 'live' sounding drum kit or a fusion of ethnic percussion, at times even taking on a Latin flavour with intricate cow bells, electro-claps and synth arps all entwined. The mood is mostly relaxed and dreamy with emphasis on warmth and easy going dance friendly atmospheres. Voice fragments arise in places, mostly heavily processed; deep, deep within liquid reverberation and employed more as instrumental effects than for lyrical content. Global samples periodically take over the melodic roles before sinking back into the electronica. Heavily distorted fuzz guitar, a couple of glitchy textures, jazzy ad-libs, dizzy effects, altered organs and sonorous vibes all join the party in suitably chilled attire.
ARTWORK
I have the electronic promo version of the album and so have only seen the layout for front and back covers. The front imagery you can see above left: tangled curlicues suggesting entwined foliage are topped by floral concentric discs, a bird motif and a couple of butterflies enjoying the idyll. The back cover strips the same imagery down to a simple corner ornament and presents the track titles each with associated time in black font on white background.
OVERALL
Itay Berger celebrates the goodness of life with this bright remix album. Eight of the original eleven tracks from Life Is Nice appear here in remixed form showcasing the increased mastery of the tropical dub genre that Itay has developed. The absent three being Shinzon Romulan, The Sound of the Sword and The Bells of Burma. However, there are two additional surprise pieces: Beautiful Afternoon edited from Live at the Boom Festival and Fever. The Kukan Dub Lagan official hotline tells us that the first three hundred buyers of digital remix album will get a free bonus CD of "New Life New Vision" (the recently released third album) delivered direct to their home - that's highly generous you have to admit. The new album is available in pretty much any format you might wish for: 320k mp3, FLAC, etc. The official Kukan Dub Lagan Bandcamp site holds samples of the various tracks if you'd like to see what you're getting.
ARTIST'S THOUGHTS
I started to work on this album a while ago. It was hard to collect all the files and I had to re-build the remixes from zero because most of the files been damaged on my old computer. From that, it lead to the nice concept of a remixes album where each track is like a totally new track, as a remix or new version. I wanted that when the fans would listen to the tracks, they would recognize and remember the old sound but at same time would discover new sounds and atmosphere inside. With the melodica, the percussions, the guitar, drums and so on, where I took all these live instruments I played and mixed it with an electronic touch. I made this music for the people at same time as for my kids/family.
My inspiration comes from both of these great waves I am breathing each day. So we decided to give the 1st 300 customers a bonus CD (Kukan Dub Lagan 3rd album-New Life New Vision) to support the people as well and not just to be supported only as an artist. Kindness and good energy need to go both ways.
Feel Life.
