Strategy: Super Awareness Is Fruit
Under The Spire

Paul Dickow has been keeping a relatively low profile on the Strategy front of late, but hopefully this twenty-minute vinyl outing on Under The Spire signifies an opening of the floodgates, so to speak. Issued on clear vinyl in a 200-copy edition, the material is Strategy in ultra-deep dub mode, all subterranean bass lines and reverb-drenched textural atmospheres. The A-side's “Super Awareness Is Fruit” gradually comes into focus when disparate strands first of all coalesce into a skanky plod before morphing into a mighty dub-funk groove awash in thick, psychedelic flourishes and echoing guitar chords. The flip's “Ninety Degrees” likewise begins in a state of distended beatless reverie, with its percussive and melodic elements splintering in all directions, before picking itself up and progressing determinedly on its way. The music grows in richness and dimensionality, so much so one could perhaps forget that the dub ensemble one is listening to is, of course, a convincing trick of sleight-of-hand by a single producer. The disc's twenty minutes are over in what seems like half the time, and one comes to the end desperately eager for a second helping. Here's hoping we won't have to wait too long for more new Strategy material to go along with this splendid twelve-inch appetizer.

November 2011