As he was working on
Three/Three
, the long-awaited fourth album by his influential hip-hop production alias
Dabrye
,
Tadd Mullinix
began working on a different project that took inspiration from the early days of jungle as well as seminal releases on
Warp Records
and the second wave of Detroit techno. The name
X-Altera
is a reference to the Latin phrase ex altera, meaning "from or of the other side," as well as a tribute to
Underground Resistance
's
X-101
and
X-102
offshoots. The music cross-pollinates drum'n'bass with techno, focusing on smooth, atmospheric melodies and shredded, uptempo breakbeats, but never sounding too derivative of either style. It's a fresh sound that recalls artists like
4hero
Kenny Larkin
without directly copying them, and fits in a late-2010s context along with producers such as
Skee Mask
Om Unit
while doing something different and unique.
Mullinix
succeeds at balancing lush textures and uplifting moods with a hint of darkness, keeping things from sounding too fluffy. Nothing here is as hard as the roughneck jungle
previously produced as one half of
Soundmurderer & SK-1
-- there are no brutalist Amen break tear-outs, and ragga vocals are used sparingly here. The beats sound jittery yet airy, and the synth sweeps are generally sunny and euphoric.
switches things up by dropping the tempo a bit on the swirly, spacy "Parallel Rites (Kepler-452b)," which closely resembles early
Black Dog
or
B12
, while "Shoreline (Can't Understand)" seems like a hybrid of U.K. garage and darkside jungle. If
Jacob's Optical Stairway
ever made a second album, it would be tough competition with this one.
is a fresh reinvention, as well as
's second brilliant album of 2018. ~ Paul Simpson