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But first what is Dublab? The dublab.com site reads as if we were talking to Carlos Niño himself, “a radio collective devoted to the growth of positive music and culture,” and “Dublab spreads beautiful future roots music via the world’s best DJs.” And that is a fair reflection of the four varied tracks that made up the first 12”.

No more so than Camping’s ‘Sie Sagt’. Cheesie joins Germany’s Henning Fritzenwalder on my favourite track here: it’s a bossa nova with acoustic guitar and a bit of synth with the horns. Summery vocals complete the picture.

The other half of the b-side is totally different as Project Blowed’s Ellay Khule is joined by Nobody on beats for ‘Sound of the Human Race’. It’s reminiscent of the track that on Ellay appeared on the last Busdriver album. In fact, Nobody (aka Elvin Estela) subsequently got his own track on In The Loop #2 and has a new CD out on Plug Research called ‘And Everything Else’.

On the other side, ‘I Won’t Race You’ by Caural is as fine an example of leftfield ambient hip hop as you’re likely to find this side of Playa del Rey.

Again, like the b-side, the other half is a real contrast. Indie-electronic Dntel (DJ Jimmy Tamborello, who Carlos really rates) is represented here with ‘(This is) the Dream of Evan and Chan’ from his Life is Full of Possibilities album. It’s been remixed by The Postal Service and is not a happy parcel as I think it’s the least attractive of the quartet of tracks. The electronic bass line reminds me of 80s disco-syth-pop similar to the Linus Loves remix of Plant Life’s new 12” Luv Me (Til It Hurts). However, underneath the remix you can hear a bright indie influence (fairly interesting to find a link to Rilo Kiley’s web site via the dublab page).

Long time readers of Hectic scribbles will have notice the irritant that is the increasingly poor state of sleeve art and design. The move to 5” CD formats hasn’t helped and with MP3 downloads we miss all the tactile pleasure of buying and collecting music. At least Plug Research and Dublab are supporting the ‘Up Our Sleeve’ team. They say, “a blank 12” cover is an exciting medium. It’s instantly recognizable and infinitely adjustable.” Not sure what ‘infinitely adjustable’ means exactly but it’s cool that the sleeve art is then auctioned online to support more Dublab’s “positive music transmissions”. There must be another way to prod Plug Research into thinking about ‘Dublab presents in the Loop #3’?

Reviewed: ‘Dublab presents In The Loop #1’ 12 ” Cat. No. PR48EP (Plug Research)
Track Listing:
Side A: 1. Caural — “I Won’t Race You” 2. Dntel – “(This is the Postal Service’s mix of) The Dream of Evan and Chan”
Side B: 1. Ellay Khule — ‘Sound of the Human Race’ 2. Camping – ‘Sie Sagt’

Links:
www.plugresearch.com
www.dublab.com Listen to the dubStream
www.upoursleeve.org
Jason Macaya : Front Cover
Heavywight : Rear Cover
Rilo Kiley / Bright Eyes [Portsmouth]