I hate summer, and it’s not just because of the heat and humidity. Having stashed away all of the more wintry-sounding records for the next snowy day, I always seem to find myself at a loss for what to listen to. In my last Stypod entry, I mentioned that the latest Mapstation LP, Distance Told Me Things to Be Said, had led me to revisit some of the dub classics. Now, thanks to the release of Vladislav Delay’s newest album, the dub-tinged techno banger Tulenkantaja, put out under his less prolific Uusitalo moniker, I can’t stop listening to the stuff, and it’s starting to look like dub may be providing the soundtrack to the rest of my summer.

Centering on recordings from some of the more electro-flavored dub artists like Deadbeat, Pole, and Loscil, the grainy sheets of reverb, aquatic bass lines, and skittering, head-bobbing beats—the hallmarks of the genre—are just the thing to pull you through the hazy, lazy days of summer. While these artists may not seem to have that many similarities with their Jamaican forebears on first listen, they’ve taken the aforementioned dub formula, filtered it through their laptops and modern studios, and have developed a new strain of dub. Some call this music ‘glitch’ or ‘ambient’ dub, but, fundamentally, it’s no different than what came out of King Tubby’s maze of analog delays or the madcap studio tricks of Lee “Scratch” Perry, it’s just a little bit more heady, and way more abstract.

Take, for instance, Deadbeat’s “Slow Rot from Rhetoric,” taken from last year’s New World Observer LP. While it may take a while to congeal into a track proper, lingering for over a minute in ambient swells and disjointed organ chords, the deep, all-encompassing atmospherics give way to a classic dub bass line—low and spare, with just the right amount of repetition—and a tight, dry rhythm that floats above the song’s atmospheric undercurrent. All the while, snare hits spin out into fine waves of digital noise and bursts of static loop in a downward spiral, eventually degrading into muddy shadows of their former selves. It’s an assortment of sounds and effects that is not unlike listening to the mists of a turbulent ocean or the steamy evaporation of a summer thunderstorm. Considering that virtually every sound that can be found on a Deadbeat album originates from his laptop, it’s astonishing how lush and organic sounding it all comes out to be.

Taking things one step further down the path of abstraction, we come across the work of Stefan Betke, who performs under the alias Pole and is also responsible for running Germany’s ~Scape Records, who release much of Deadbeat’s output. His sound could be likened to listening to a Deadbeat album sans the beats and overarching structure. The bass lines and dub rhythms are still in place, but they’re all so heavily processed, so obscured under clouds of vinyl static and distortion, that all you really get is a tight bass line surrounded by constantly shifting atmospherics. On tracks like “Überfahrt,” taken from his 3 LP, this effect is realized to stunning and hypnotizing ends—it’s also one of his more straightforwardly dubby tracks, more or less forgoing the techno overtones that can be found in so much of his earlier work.

Finally, moving ever farther away from the origins of dub music, we come to the beautiful work of Vancouver’s Loscil. Unfortunately, since his records have always been released by the ever-dependable Kranky Records, I’ve never felt that Loscil has received the dub credentials that he’s always deserved. Instead, he’s been lumped in with the drifting ambience of label-mates like Stars of the Lid and Labradford, but, while there’s always plenty of drift going on in Loscil’s tracks—the man did put out a record themed after sunken submarines, after all—he has always taken cues from dub music. Consider the title track from his gorgeous First Narrows LP, floating over a billowy cloud of synthesized ambience are the same skittering snares, bass lines, and processed instruments as you would find on any of his peers’ releases. In his case, it’s just all slowed down and shaded over in a narcotic haze that makes his tracks quintessentially Loscil. This music is the sonic equivalent of floating suspended within the aqua blue water of your pool while 98 degree heat blazes above the surface, hair drifting of its own volition and all: perfect for summer listening.

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