Zomby – Dedication
4AD: 2011
Dedication holds very few traits from Zomby’s debut album Where Were U In ’92. The hardware is the same, scientific beats pour into pseudo-organic instrumentation—a bionic sound or a singularity. But this bionic man was disassembled and rebuilt with stronger, more flexible steel. It doesn’t move as fast as it did two years ago—it walks steady and stealthy through war fields, scaring soldiers into submission. It’s precise and still very dangerous. Dedication is a true sophomore album upgrade.
Zomby wonders through themes within a genre. What might be dubstep, is also jungle. What isn’t jungle or dubstep, might be rave—and all in the space of 16 tracks. The album is not cohesive by way of similarity. That is to say, tracks do not fit together like tiles; they form a rotating mosaic, a Kaleidoscope that prevents its many colorful influences from blending into a tasteless shade of gray.
More specifically, the opening track, “Witch Hunt”, attacks the brain and causes disorientation. The overlapping sounds of sharp sonic taps compliment a soft drone and snapping fingers, all of which climax to the sample of a crisp pistol discharge—electronic meets organic, meets a drive-by-shooting.
On the other end of the spectrum, “Basquiat” is a simple, haunting piano piece. Subtle electric drones accent the track’s dark tone. The name of the track might call attention to the Brooklyn graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who created abstract, colorful pop art. If this were preview to Zomby’s next endeavor, it might require an interesting Warhol-esque collaboration in which critics cry foul.
Amongst the metallic circuitry that holds this album together, there is also a tribal presence, where call and response and tribal drums break up the monotony of sound loops. It solidifies the fact that from track one to track 16, this album wears many masks. It’s not clear where Zomby will go next. But as a producer, he’s has show some great potential for growth and adaptation.
Stream “Things Fall Apart” below.
3.5 out of 5