Vladimir Dubyshkin cheerful pessimist трип (Trip) | The Electro Review

Vladimir Dubyshkin
cheerful pessimist
трип (Trip)
Out 17th December


From Tambov in Russia, Vladimir Dubyshkin arrives on the трип impress to unveil his first solo offering. Paying attention to the lower-case lettering in its title, the notion seems to conjure up a sense of self-defeatist optimism. It's a curious paradox that creates an alluring desire to check out the music. Designed to be unleashed during the high hours of the dance-floor, in which clubbers are all crammed together and bouncing to the high energy beats, cheerful pessimist brings home more of that satisfying dance music that keeps everyone having a good time. Nina Kraviz herself, the iconic owner of трип records, has pulled out numerous tracks by this techno-heavy dance musician in her premiere DJ sets.


It begins with a quick paced bass drum, pounding in pinpoint zones in the middle of the stereo. A unique flavour on the sound gives it an instantly recognisable flow. Rhythmic sounds of synth in treble and bass bleep in static pulses, growing in amplitude with each whirl of the energy. It all builds up and soon is greeted by squelchy bass that digs and squirms around in the under-passage of the track. Constant motion with repetitive progressions keep pulling us in further yet contains stability to implement the powerful dancing tempo. A new synth, one in the family of the muddy bass-line yet somehow able to fly, swoops down and greets the rhythm in the centre. Belissimo is a wonderful and simple plunge into the depths of the dancing crowd.


I decided to fly enters after a bashing into oblivion from the beats of belissimo. A wobbling and fast moving bass tunes in to an even faster rhythm, made of bass and snare, with tappy hats keeping everything smooth. Vocal samples repeating phrases evolves into a ghostly emotional depth that seems to blanket the rest of the track in an organic yet digitally infected warmth. The rhythms build and grow to become catchy and with rumbling clarity, the dancing energy is made to become a peak on a mountain of sound. It all boils down to reveal the repeating vocal lines which are constant and pulsing, and as we grow accustomed to the reduced sound, everything spills back over the rocks and this time with an extra layer of percussion with a wooden sounding ping which catches the off-beat.


A disjoined static infused rhythm, similar to a digital didgeridoo begins to pound the bass-end of the sonic spectrum. A much shorter offering in machines behave badly gives a frantic escape into rhythm based sonic fusion of ideas and tempos. A bass drum begins to form a stable entity behind the furious expressions from the ever shifting digital and distorted pipes. Gradual throws of effect and pushes on the tone functions bring out different and curious sections of its ever powerful rhythm. Pigeon epilepsy begins with a staggered bass-drum, thrown from side to side by an echo effect. Tones that could be interpreted as synthesised pigeon sounds begin to coo and crow over the layers of percussion. A magical energy swoops in behind the scenes in another cooing, this time on the opposite end of the spectrum to the manic and aggressive feeling over sounds.


The EP ends on rooyggbiv. It's comprised of a plucky bass with two-step drums which become a sounding board for more vocal samples. Up-beat and intense energy flows into the mix, which brings everything into a pitch-shifting bend upwards and outwards. The whole record brings a fascinating set of tempos, fills, and sonic experiments together which undoubtedly make perfect sense within those peak times on the club dance-floor.


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From the author of The Electro Review: 575365 - 365 Haiku and Senryu