Weed Hard To Kill (Nettwerk)

20th Century Ambient Drum And Bass Electronic / Experimental / Industrial Industrial Rhythm Techno Trip Hop, Breaks, Dub, World-Fusion (Very) Alternative Contact

Weed is the impressive new project from Vancouver's Dan Handrabur, who has done world class releases as Mere Mortals (on the Canadian imprint Map Records) and Off & Gone (with Phil Western for the Harthouse label). Now he's taking the atmospheric world-fusion dub-hop and drum & bass sounds of Mere Mortals into vocal areas in the company of his wife Cristina. India is their first stop on the way, as sitar/tamboura ambience and junglist tabla rhythms populate the spacey opening "Further Away." On other tracks, hard hip-hop beats ("Hard To Kill" and "Again & Again") contrast well with her quiet spoken-style delivery. Some cuts feature guitars, but don't let anyone tell you this is Garbage. Other Canadian outfits have gone for this kind of post-Portishead beats and female voice combination, but this is one that reaches the deepest.