Osaka-based DJ / producer, Akio Nagase, is becoming something of a fixture on London label Emotional Especial. Having featured on a series of Chillmountain 12s, he’s  subsequently released a couple of solo, TB-303 laced EPs, and here comes the third. Dub Acid contains 4 tracks that combine Nagase’s biggest musical passions. 

I Like Smoke is a hot, rocking shot of house, whose steady 4 / 4 swims in swirls of unpredictable dub techno textures: filtered, fractured keys, and showers of delay and decay. The song’s hook is a sample lifted from Linval Thompson’s late `70s roots hit, I Love Marijuana. The same steal used recently by Persian. 

Night Time High Acid stays true its title. Occupying a sonic space that’s darker, more nocturnal, while significantly dropping the pH. Switching between riffs on melodica and Roland’s little silver box.  

Harmonica Dub has a slower, skanking swing, but lets rip with a proper blues harp hoedown that’s far more Lemon Interrupt’s Big Mouth than Morricone’s Once Upon A Time In The West. Think Alan Glen’s On-U / Sherwood produced shake of Area Code 615’s Stone Fox Chase. 

The highlight, however, is Nagase’s warm, bouncing rework of Aisha and Mad Professor’s much-loved, oft borrowed, Ariwa classic The Creator. Following in the footsteps of giants / heroes such as The Orb and Depth Charge, this deep, meditative mover makes great use of the famous hypnotic chant. 

All together now…

“Ahh-ooh-waah-ooh-waah-ooh-waah-waah.”

You can order Akio Nagase’s Dub Acid EP directly from Emotional Especial. The first pressing – in Japan at least – sold out literally overnight. However, more copies are due late March.