‘Decadubs 3’ is a vinyl-only companion-piece to Hyperdub’s next birthday collection CD, ‘Hyperdub 10.2’
After ’10.1’, our first compilation of 10th anniversary dancefloor heaters, ‘10.2’ features some of the label's best songs of the last five years, and this EP pulls tighter focus on six of that set’s more body-moving moments. Hyperdub is often associated with dark and brooding instrumental music; however, this mid-summer collection sheds sunlight over that dread filled reputation, showcasing an underrated cast of talented songwriters, vocalists and producers.
Laced with new cuts from Kode9, Cooly G, Morgan Zarate feauring. Eska and Ghostface Killah, Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland, DVA featuring Zaki Ibrahim, and a reversioned & revoiced contribution by Ikonika with Dam Funk, ‘Decadubs 3’ highlights a sometimes-overlooked aspect of Hyperdub’s personality with a range of cerebral R&B, garage, funk, and icy pop.
Opening Side 1, DVA is joined again by South African singer Zaki Ibrahim with their brand new summery mutant garage track ‘Solid’, followed by the lo-fi, bashy mutation of Kode9 & copeland's ‘Lies Lies’, then Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland’s grime lullaby ‘Signal 2012’, one of their final joint works.
On Side 2, Morgan Zarate’s ‘Sticks & Stones’ is a swinging lost dub featuring the soulful Eska and Wu Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah. Dam Funk jumps on Ikonika's funk bomb ‘Mr. Cake’, adding a fun, party vocal for its new incarnation as ‘I Know (That You Are The 1)’, and finally the EP sways into the digi dub meets R & B slow jam of South Londoner Cooly G’s ‘Obsessed’.