Jay Glass Dubs

Jay Glass Dubs

Plegnic

Ecstatic Recordings

“Jay Glass Dubs returns with this plate of new, original material channelling Greek pop and echoes of classic 4AD soused in distress and flipped in dub...properly good, perhaps the best yet from Dimitris Papadatos.  Jay Glass Dubs sublimates Athenian distress and ennui into plasmic dub ether on ‘Plegnic’, his lushly evolved first collection of new material for Ecstatic, following from their acclaimed, 2LP ‘Dubs’ set of his earliest, hard-to-find tape releases, Deconstructing and rebuilding Jamaican dub with musique concrete production methods and a lingering air of inspiration from classic 4AD, new age and Laïko, or Greek popular music, Jay Glass Dubs fascinatingly evolves his sound with richer melodic and harmonic arrangements in a concerted effort to bridge and expand the nostalgic, esoteric and dancefloor dimensions of his unique sound world. The key to the record lies in its title, ‘Plegnic’; an extinct word meaning “to strike like a hammer”, as well as its palpable sense of nostalgia. In this archaic context, JGD uses vintage machines and obsolete samples into junction with vocals from Yorgia Karidi - sound artist and coincidentally former beau of his childhood neighbour, and Andreas Kassapis one of his oldest friends, who provides the cover art - to conjure a strikingly new, mutated take on classic and well-trodden styles; metaphorically and anachronistically renewing their purpose while connoting his newfound dancefloor drive in the process. Recording took place at his mother’s house in the Athens suburbs, with Fugazi’s ‘Steady Diet of Nothing’ on repeat. It was here...

Jay Glass Dubs

Dubs

Ecstatic Recordings

Written during what Dimitris Papadatos, aka Jay Glass Dubs, describes as “an adventurous and bold period”, and holding material issued on tape by various labels between 2015-2016, the Dubs compilation frames a singular, stripped down take on classic dub forms, wherein Jay Glass Dubs perceptibly retains the sound’s heavy function and mystic qualities, but subtly updates its palette with a range of nods to a myriad of unexpected, angular styles.  The results form a sort of ghostly, filleted subtraction of classic dub architecture, all plasmic tones and diaphanous, boneless structures buoyed by an often overwhelming, yet somehow intangible bass presence. Beyond the obvious, thematic ligature that connects the material, which was all recorded within a very short period of time, the artist also suggests there is an underlying, encrypted similarity to the material which is “merely apparent to me”, and awaits much closer investigation from keen ears.  From Jay’s eponymous 2015 debut for Hylé tapes, listeners will encounter the heaving smudge of Definition Dub, the serpentine, Coil-like digital delays of Grumpy Dub, and a grime drone drill Depression Dub. Off the II tape for THRHNDRDSVNTNN comes the darkwave synths and militant step of Magazine Dub recalling a gauzier Equiknoxx production, next to the bass-less scudder, Detrimental Dub and the shoegazing bloom of Daria Dub, while his III tape tees up some abyssal highlights in the vertiginous Hilton Dub, the melancholy, Basic Channel-scoped scale of Sieben Dub, and the HTRK-esque starkness of Everlasting Dub.  Exclusive to the set...