If ever there were two lo-fi sounds destined to meet, they would be dub and 8-bit. The former is the Jamaica-born body of studio techniques that put groove-heavy soul music through an echo chamber, elevating percussion elements into vapor trails of hallucinogenic effects. In dub, a simple snare drum can open up like a flower, and rim shot can ricochet like a SuperBall.
The latter is a nostalgia-infused computer music, one in which the rudimentary sounds of early arcade games are employed to make blippy, often happy-go-lucky tunes.
The realms collide on Simon Mattison‘s Leaves, a six-track collection on the MP3 Death netlabel (mp3death.us). Just listen to “Deltoid,” which has the bleeping spunk of Pac Man in heat; it’s kicked up a notch above average 8-bit goofiness thanks to a swaying, sideways-motion rhythm (MP3). And the dub feel is nowhere as pervasive as on “Ovate,” in which flanging repetition into extended fade-outs gives some needed heft to the bippity melodic line (MP3). Get the full set at archive.org. (Via twentygoto10.com.)