Unknown Ghosts - Transfer at Dub
John Roome, lately of Witchman and Goldwater, has a new project: The Unknown Ghosts. Mixing Witchman's penchant for beats and Goldwater's miasmic atmospheres with a street-style of scratches and dub echoes, Transfer at Dub is a record that bumps along rain-slicked city streets at 2am. Roome has been working in a production capacity with The Orb as well as being part of their live experience (Alex Patterson is credited as a participant on nearly half of the tracks of the record) and Transfer at Dub does display some of the synergy of this time: a vast openness to the sound, a dub echo which goes all the way back to the beginning of time.
"Dreadnaught" rolls through the back streets of a ravaged city, beginning with a raspy reverb of metal scrapping across metal, highlighted by a bleeping tone -- a machine's alert signals shot through with an oil-based dub infusion. The heart of the record fills into the space next, the scratches and beats which become the soundtrack to the lost streets which this machine patrols. Voices and a brass section make up the remainder of the texture and the whole monstrosity powers along, taking you, your dog, and everything that isn't nailed down along with it.
Mako and Rosanne provide vocals for "Reality Check," a organ-infused steam-driven wagon which circles the block, the catch-phrase echoing from the WWII-era loudspeakers attached to the roof of the old wagon. The other track to feature guest vocals is "Revolution" and the vocal work is done by Baby Johnson, a Hail Mary preacher working from the back of his open wagon, calling upon the masses to reach for a brighter world.
"Sleepwalkin" is haunted by a flute melody, a Pied Piper type lilting which drifts in on a thick platform of dark beats sounding like nothing more than a DJ Krush tune. The Piper persona is a mask, an empty vessel acting as the avatar of a sinister creature which waits for you beneath the city streets. The flute brings you down to its lair, your body twitching and jerking with the spastic rhythms of its black heartbeat.
"Motown" spins us through Detroit, powered by a 12-inch record from the late 1970s. This record is a sequence of layers, layered historical strata which is peeled back, scooped out and placed again, becoming fresh asphalt to be poured on new streets. This is 21st century dub which requires the weight of the previous time period to lend gravity to its presence. Roome doesn't try to hide his influences, rather they are stretched out and laid before you, each song having certain elements and aspects which seem so familiar on the first listen. But you've never been here before; the road just feels like your old neighborhood.
Transfer at Dub is rife with that sensation: familiarity. But Roome's accomplishment is that he transcends this feeling. The beats, the scratches, the rhythms, all of it seems to be comfortable and welcome as it slips into your brain like an old friend come to visit. But, after a few minutes, there is an unsettling thought which creeps into your consciousness: you don't really know this guy. This record is haunted by ghosts, phantoms of songs we think we remember. Maybe they never existed. The Unknown Ghosts name is more appropriate than you realize. Transfer at Dub turns out to be much more than what it appears. The Orb, Witchman, and Goldwater all thrown into a blender and spun at high speed for three minutes. What happens inside that blender is not quite what you think. There is a black hole at the bottom of the container. Prepare to be sucked in.
Witchman
Mekong Records [2002]
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