Diverse in the stylistic bases they cover, yet unified by the mood and technical skill underpinning their production, Ruckspin and Sparrow have put together a formidable body of work as Author.
Far from the packed clubs and brain-crushing wub-wub-wub of dubstep’s mainstream manifestations, Jack Sparrow (Ryan Gath) and Ruckspin (Dom Howard) have been hard at work advancing the genre under their Author moniker. The collaboration has resulted in an eponymous release on Tectonic, due out 14th November 2011, which is an impressive showcase of their talents. The press release name-checks “Kruder & Dorfmeister’s K&D Sessions, The Cinematic Orchestra, and timeless Mowax recordings” and indeed the tracks tend to jazzy, R&B influenced arrangements underpinned with modern elements.
The opening chords of “Turn (featuring Ed Thomas)” immediately set the mood. The production sparkles as the disparate elements — Thomas’ plaintive vocals, a late-night horn line and plucked standup bass, and slow-rolling electronic rhythm — pull together in a most appealing way. “Sun” extends the theme, using a female vocal sample instead of a guest singer this time but again, the juxtaposition of the traditional saxophone and piano with rinsin’ beats and bass keeps it fresh.
As the album evolves, “Green & Blue (featuring Ben Glass)” pulls in a ska horn section, “Dashiki” wraps a live string section in Afro-Cuban drumming to evoke the colorful garment of its title, and “Mothership” takes a tech-y turn, dispensing with the live instrumentation for a straight-ahead bass-heavy banger. The intricate interplay between the percussion and sound design on this track make it my standout favorite — plus I’m a longtime fan of Eat Static-esque samples about UFOs and Author have sliced up what sounds like a 911 emergency call from someone who’s just had a close encounter.
The pace stays high with “Fix,” led by a bubbly off-beat reggae keyboard and pitched-up blues vocals, but then Author introduce “Drain” with a Craig Armstrong-style soundtrack piano figure and appropriately windswept sound sculpture with chattering machines and a distant, filtered kick/snare rhythm. When the songs breaks out just past the two-minute mark, the Cinematic Orchestra faces stiff competition for epic grandeur. Author introduce new elements at each breakdown: the album’s signature sax/trumpet interplay, wordless-yet-heatrending female vocals, mounting layers of percussion. Finally, on the reprise, the track shifts to the ambient, trailing off like storm clouds over the ocean.
Diverse in the stylistic bases they cover, yet unified by the mood and technical skill underpinning their production, Ruckspin and Sparrow have put together a formidable body of work as Author. Only time will tell whether this album will ascend to take a place alongside Cinematic’s Everyday or the K&D Sessions in the dn’b/downtempo canon, but it certainly stands well above its less polished, less intelligent, less accomplished peers in the crowded field of bass-heavy electronic music.
Author is out now on Tectonic.
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