Something Borrowed Something Blue [digipak]

Deadbeat returns to Scape with the sequel to 2002's Wild Life Documentaries, a chronicle of the nine months leading up to his marriage in June 2003, entitled Something Borrowed, Something Blue. Continuing to explore dub's far-reaching root system, this sequel sees Deadbeat push the boundaries of his frame of reference to further extremes at both ends of the spectrum. While the legacy of Kingston's dub proper and Berlin's techno hybrids are still audible, the album's crunchier moments adopt a more aggressive version of the dub recipe, with echos of perhaps Tackhead or African Head Charge bouncing around some far corner of the reverb tank. The cinematic format of Wild Life Documentaries is also taken to new heights here, with track boundaries becoming increasingly blurred, thoughts left to unfurl in slow motion, and sounds disappearing and reappearing like characters in an ever thickening plot...or perhaps forgotten and frantically remembered entries on an ever-growing wedding reception 'To do' list. As one might expect from a document of such an intense time in a person's life, Something Borrowed, Something Blue is an emotional landscape of widely varying elevation. 'A Brief Explanation' begins the journey by introducing us to a new friend, a cricket, who perhaps was caught in the hard drive spindle at the completion of the last chapter. Like all good friends, he remains for the duration of the journey. 'Head Over Heels' provides the warmth and comfort of a crackling fireplace on a cold winter night, set to a jangling ukelele melody augmented with piano shards and a round, insistent kick. 'White Out' captures the raging blizzard just outside the door: icy chords and a militant dancehall stomp build to a climax before being shattered and reconfigured into triplicate techno shrapnel. 'Requiem' provides an excellent reference for testing the bass response of even the most well-equipped sound system. Drums and bass are submerged to the furthest depths of the dub sea, with shimmering chords burbling to the surface throughout. 'Steady as a Rock' is perhaps the album's most deliberate nod to the Jamaican kings, with a roaring organ and fractured guitar line pulled along by a chugging engine of drums and bass. 'Fixed Elections' sees Deadbeat voice his political frustrations with a slippery Detroit synth line and a tear-jerking reggae chorus. 'A Joyful Noise Part 1' weaves digital-synth textures and heavily processed field recordings around a hopeful organ and rolling bassline. 'Part 2' sees the same sources deconstructed and reassembled to form a lullaby of static and melodic noise. On 'Quitting Time' Deadbeat bashes out a colossal kick-snare pattern on his bath tub in a mournful ode to the exhaustion we've all felt after a hard day's work. Our journey ends with 'Portable Memory (The Final Cut)', a cloud of digital debris that rises to a distorted crescendo before dissipating into the final sustained chord and the familiar chatter of our friend the cricket, bringing things, as is so often the case, full circle."