by Rick Anderson
The pedigree of this album is a bit complicated. The source material comes from releases by Simon Posford, who records under the name Hallucinogen. But the versions of those tracks contained here were dubbed up by Ott -- and that seems to be the only name he goes by, except that he also records in a more trancey mode under the name Eco. As the admirably straightforward title of this album would indicate, the mixes Ott designs for Hallucinogen are deeply rooted in classic dub-wise reggae, though you would never mistake them for the genuine article. For one thing, he manages to employ all the standard studio tricks of dub -- echo, delay, phasing, and instruments popping up out of the murk and then submerging again -- without ever creating the mystical, spiritual quality that characterized most Jamaican dub of the 1970s. Even on tracks like the &Wicked Bassmonkey Mix& of &Solstice& and the &It's Turtles All the Way Down Mix& of Γ Goblins,& which are nothing if not trippy and sometimes downright pretty, the grooves are hard and clean rather than smoky and trippy. And the &World Sheet of Closed String Mix& of &L.S.D.& sounds attractively like a summit meeting between Strange Parcels and Mad Professor. Most pleasantly surprising of all is the fact that even with an average track length of just over nine minutes, not a single one of these tunes sounds too long. In fact, you finish the album with a distinct sense of disappointment. There are other dub albums you can say that about, but not very many.