Mysticisms deliver Dubplate #9. This time out taking a cherry pick of the Dub Specialists’ back catalogue. Dub Specialists was a collaboration between UK roots veterans Dougie “Conscious Sounds” Waldrop and Chris “Love Grocer” Petter. Under this alias, between the mid to late `90s, the duo produced 3 albums. The 4 tracks that Mysticisms have chosen all bash together dub and funk, creating cool hybrids that could have  seamlessly slotted alongside the downtempo gear that Andrew Weatherall played during his seminal Kiss FM “Giving It Up” sessions, where here demonstrating his own dub and industrial-informed take on the Balearic Beat.  

Matt “Vanity Project” Bruce is asked to edit Funkin Dub, which is a radical deconstruction of James Brown’s Get On The Good Foot. The familiar original is only present as fidgeting fragments. Millie McKee takes the controls for Movin Ya, which is still breakbeat-driven but slower, more chilled, although rocked by seismic shocks, bubbling sonic splashes and the odd orgasmic outburst. 

Label founders Piers Harrison and Stuart “Chuggy” Leath also take turns. Piers does Dub De Funk. Based on a beat and bass loop, while rhythm stays locked rigid, the track is actually in a state of constant flux – treated to random reverb drops, and showered in echoed samples and sound effects. Phased, filtered instruments – organs, guitar, congas, keys – also drift in and out. Chuggy’s on the cut for Murderous Style, the EP at its most “reggae”. Still colliding genres, and exploding drums, it, however, makes the most of some Dancehall DJ soundboy boasting and a heavy skanking B-line.  

Dubplate #9, Dub Specialists’ Break To Break can be ordered directly from Mysticisms.