Lazily glaring at us from beneath the shadows, the guitar strings that introduce “Trump Funk” are no greater an instrumental force than those they will come to be joined by in this prime cut off of Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters, but the early glimpse into cerebral madness they provide is irreplaceable here. Head Fake and Dub Fu Masters are deep in the underground creating something that doesn’t fit inside any electronica box you’ve ever seen before in this collaboration, and yet the parameters of a single-worthy song like this one seem to reflect a love of the old school I don’t hear enough of in this genre anymore.
For all intents and purposes, you could call Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters a throwback to the Germanic beats of yesteryear, but where it separates itself from the droves of retro releases arriving on Spotify this season is in the charisma of its primary players. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill, everyday alternative music experimentalists, but artists with a deeper understanding of what it is to be completely connected with the medium from top to bottom.
“Trump Funk” might be the runaway hit in this tracklist, but it’s not the only gem in the treasure chest of an EP this truly is. “Overjoyed” has a psychedelic standard I could really get into right from the moment I listened to it for the first time, and it’s presented in such a streamlined fashion that the beats it includes never sound druggy or out of context beside the straightforwardness of the other grooves here.
Head Fake knows how to use monotony to depict a plasticized reality better than almost anyone else I listen to, and next to Dub Fu Masters, we’re getting a full-color picture of their depth as songwriters unlike anything we’ve heard in their last few releases. This is growth that I didn’t necessarily expect to find when I got my copy of Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters, but I absolutely think it’s a reason why I was as instantly taken with the content here as I was.
It all starts with the first sonic kiss in “One Step,” and from there Dub Fu Masters and Head Fake are off and running on a sonic tangent you’re unlikely to dislike this August. From here, the collaborative juices boil over into something that is both decidedly rhythm-dependent and melodically free of the stylistic walls that often trap an aesthetic in predictable territory. Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters might not have the conventionality of a mainstream release, but its best beats really couldn’t have the same effect they do in such an offering as they do in this undisputedly independent context.
This is music for the sake of music, rhythm for the sake of rhythm, and poetry focused not on rhymes by on the timing of its delivery in a song like “Trump Funk.” I had high hopes for this disc, and I can say now that I’m not stepping away disappointed in what I found.
Troy Johnstone