Due up next on 100% Silk is Luke Thinnes aka Dubharp, with a cerebrally stimulating eight-track album – Spiral Heights. A fixture in the Rhinoceropolis underground show space in Denver, Dubharp is just the latest of many diverse projects under Thinnes’ belt. This time around, Thinnes focuses on a new-age, dub-infused sound that strikes a balance between dark and light, familiar and unfamiliar, current and bygone.
Spiral Heights perfectly captures a vision of future Balearic-influenced music. Dubharp seamlessly combines synthetic wind, strings and mallets and fuses distinct 4th world rhythms into the mix. The title of Spiral Heights is itself a gesture of gratitude to the ecstatic refractions of dub echo, expanding our perception of space and time.
Spiral Heights perfectly captures a vision of future Balearic-influenced music. Dubharp seamlessly combines synthetic wind, strings and mallets and fuses distinct 4th world rhythms into the mix. The title of Spiral Heights is itself a gesture of gratitude to the ecstatic refractions of dub echo, expanding our perception of space and time.
“Bamboo Cross” is the seventh track on the album and features the dub legend Lee “Scratch” Perry. This track is a culmination of the dub sound that is so prevalent throughout Spiral Heights. Perry’s vocals call out throughout the track and rest gently atop a bed of mind-bending echoes that are rooted in Dubharp’s dub-influences. Whirling drums offer old world rhythms, with heavenly harp-like plucks.
Though born of improvisation, the album’s eight tracks unspool with precision and finesse, percolating syncopations of percussion, bass, bird sounds, glitch, and gleaming circuitry. All in all, Dubharp does an excellent job incorporating elements from the future and otherworldly, as well as our more primitive past.
Spiral Heights by Dubharp is out on March 19th.
