Richard Norris momentarily moves away from his marvellous Music For Healing series, for a dose of very different meditative medicine. Oracle Sound Volume One still counts as deep listening, but the new age is swapped for dubwise. Six of the seven cuts here are effectively dub techno. 

The opening Lightning Dub steadily skanks to a house 4 / 4. Its groove graced by cool echoed chords, and massaged by soothing modular sequences. Its twisting tones turning acidic, and then symphonic, as the tune travels, over 11 minutes, toward epic. Flashes of flickering frequencies, perhaps giving the track its title. TV Scratch has its riffs reduced to ringing glimpses. Its thin, snaking melody, a little Middle Eastern, mysterious. Snatches of sampled voices spinning in and out. The bellowing bass of the super slo-mo Minotaur could be the roar of the titular mythological creature. The tune’s moody musical maze like a score for some retro-referencing modern Sci-Fi horror flick. The soundtrack to something akin to the work of Panos Cosmatos, or one of Nicolas Winding Refn’s highly stylized dark, deviant, neon-lit narratives. Sodium Haze is similar Halloween-worthy gear. Its bottom-end buzzing, while the percussion drips in drops like water from a stalactite in a subterranean cave. The sonorous reverberations colliding with a cavernous clanking, and obsidian, occult, low frequency oscillations. Built from a battery of bass synths, Third Day, judders with an almost Jahtari vibe.

Shark Tooth Dub comes closest to the legacy of Basic Channel / Rhythm & Sound. Its diaphanous surface, a veil, hiding a heavy, hypnotic black-hole gravity. Dense with glitchy, granular detail. Everything treated, filtered into a fine reverb and delay fog. Where, within, cymbals crash, snares are smashed, but cut short, clipped, and captured in echo. It’s definitely one to drift off too, especially in its unedited 20-minute take. The soothing, surrounding, sonic equivalent of a warm, womb-like, saltwater flotation tank, It’s destined to become a future classic if its limited pressing manages to reach enough ears. Due to their totally electronic, Moog-y, Buchla nature these pieces seem as much an homage to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop as King Tubby’s Hi-Fi. If Delia Derbyshire did dub.

Birthday Dub is the exception. A bit of buoyant, Balearic, Beniras beach drum circle business, its irresistible beat is like OG Amnesiacs, South London’s Deja Vu crew sharing a spliff with Guem et Zaka Percussion at a Rasta grounation.  

Richard Norris’ Oracle Sound Volume One is out now on Group Mind.