Alpha Steppa: Liberation / Pray
ZamZam Sounds

LQ & Headland: Fat Neck / Headland
ZamZam Sounds

These latest singles find the wonderful ZamZam label in exceptionally fine form. As ever issued exclusively in vinyl (in a 700-copy run) and in a seven-inch format, the first release pairs a solo cut by Headland with an LQ collaboration whereas the second's exclusively devoted to material by Alpha Steppa.

On release one, the A-side's “Fat Neck” pools the talents of Ben LQ (aka Low Quality), who oversees the Melbourne-based Echo Chamber Sound imprint, and Gene Warriner, admired for the bass music he crafts under the Headland name. Deep future-dub at its headiest, the tune rolls out on a wave of echo-drenched synth bleeps, claps, and voices, its lurching groove spiked by slinky hi-hats and stuttering reggae snares. It's one of those productions that honours the tradition in its incorporation of long-established treatments—a funky, minimal bass undercurrent and generous amounts of reverb, for starters—while at the same time making it sound totally new by invigorating the material with fresh ideas, enthusiasm, and production skills. Flip it over and the head-rush continues with “Mineral Run,” a steamroller that bolts from the gate with a techno-pumping swagger slathered with all manner of percussive accents and dub-wise detail. It isn't rave, but one imagines the tune would no doubt incite a frenzy if unleashed at the right time and place.

Disc two's by Ben Alpha, the Steppas Records operator known for his Alpha Steppa productions and who after releases by Alpha & Omega and Dub Dynasty steps out with a fine solo outing for ZamZam. As serious as he is about his productions, Alpha's not without a sense of humour: the opening cut, “Liberation,” features a bass line derived from a chicken cluck, of all things, and even threads dog panting into its construction for good measure. Not that you'd guess it from the thoroughly musical result: introduced by a high-pitched hooting figure, the cut takes flight when its volcanic bass undertow and rolling groove kick in, after which echo, thrum, flute figures, dulcimer-like thrums, and a battalion of percussive effects add to the controlled mayhem. Shifting gears dramatically, the flip's “Pray” aligns supplicating vocal chants to its curdling, 140-BPM pulse, the tune's dirge-like feel and meditative dubstep aura making the production feel like some obscure initiation rite that somehow found its way to us from some distant and long past realm.

May 2018