P033: Cabeza de Vaca – Dadub special

“We think that music is a strong mirror of social structures and dynamics, so sometimes we have the perception that lots of underground music in general has the same structures of the things that the artists want to criticize...and it happens because of market rules and show biz.”

 

 

“A mirror of social structures and dynamics” is perhaps the best way to describe the music of Italian duo Dadub (Daniele Antezza and Giovanni Conti). There is certainly a heavy feeling of mechanics, of wheels and mechanisms that turn the great machine. The lack of colour also suggests industrial smoke over the city or emptiness. But then there is something cosmic too. Maybe it is the black, infinite void that recedes behind them? Perhaps it is tidal flow of their tracks, building and closing in like a flower budding forwards and backwards, or a pulsating mouth ready to consume? Why else call your album “You are eternity?”

 

Dadub is thus the focus of this weeks show on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM.

 

There are two good interviews out there, one at Resident Advisor  dating from March 2012 which is focused more on the technical side of things, and from where the first quote comes from, and the second is over at Juno Plus and dates from February this year on the eve of the albums’ release so is much more focused in this direction.

 

I mention the politics of their music and also of Stroboscopic Artefacts in general which is an important issue for electronic music to deal with in general. The track “Truth” features a couple of samples discussing “free market economics” and their obvious failure.
 

 

Lucy’s 12” “Why don’t you change?”, the first release from the label and still one of the best, also featured a sample from the revered Indian writer and thinker Jiddu Krishnamurti dating from 1980.
 

 

 

Strangely the sample, or a smaller part of it, also turned up in another recent track, Tube and Berger’s “Imprint of pleasure” which has been charting well by DJs, but is a rather cringey quasi-Ballaeric feel good track.

 

 

In the later track, the emphasis is on pleasure rather than the contemplation of it and the desire to change as Lucy emphasises, two opposite stand points reflected in the music itself: ne tough and smart and the other mindless and in pursuit of pleasure.

The track "Ilya" that I play from the "Moand VIII" release is also a homage to another thinker, this time Russian-born, but nationalised Belgian Ilya Prigogine, who worked on atomic physics and a Nobel laureate.

 

 
 

Dadub had a couple of tracks out on the Killekill label recently as well, one on the "Killekill Megahits" compilation and more recently on the "Krake 001" festival compilation.





I forgot to mention that Lucy also remixes one of the tracks on the Oscar Mulero EP “Black Propaganda remixes part 1”, tackling the track “To Convince for the Untruth”. A second part has just been released too. Lucy's track is great, and the third is by Shifted he we already had a special on, so I thought I would play Developer this time to mix it up a bit.
 

 

 

Next week’s show is Udacha and Russia!

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Valanx	Daughters Of The Everfire (Yves De Mey Remix)	SonuoS	2013
2	Nubian Mindz	Hacker Wacker	Disko404	2013
3	Dadub	Life	Stroboscopic Artefacts	2013
4	Dadub	Ilya	Stroboscopic Artefacts	2011
5	Dadub	Transfer	Stroboscopic Artefacts	2013
6	Dadub	Existence (Kanding Ray remix)	Stroboscopic Artefacts	2013
7	A Sagittarian	Funky Archer (Aubrey remix)	Elastic Dreams	2013
8	Oscar Mulero	Black Propaganda (Developer Hypnotic Reconstruction Remix)	Warm Up Recordings	2013
9	Mutant	AUM	Pareto Park	2013

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