Sometimes a beat can tell a story without much else to lean on, and while there’s certainly more to the musical might in “One Step,” it’s definitely a groove-driven performance from the collaborating Head Fake and Dub Fu Masters this summer. One of the three songs comprising their new EP Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters, “One Step” is five and a half minutes of industrial grinding set to a much poppier melodic backdrop than its initial thrust would leave us expecting to find – that said, contradictions are the former acts’ specialty.
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Head Fake has been stoking interest in their content throughout the past year with a set of intriguing releases that push the boundaries of pop aesthetics as close to the edge of reason as possible without stepping into the noisy abyss, and with Dub Fu Masters in the studio, the magic that normally transpires in one of these sessions is made all the more potent. This opening cut is certainly all I need to get lost in the incendiary dynamics of these two acts when they’re operating at full capacity, but it’s joined by two additional tracks that arguably raise the standard for both creative forces moving ahead.
“Trump Funk” is the most successful cut off of the tracklist thus far, and its minimalistic ascent into beat madness could be the reason why. This piece is a lot more conceptual than its counterparts are, but its bombastic elements don’t overstate the ambitions of the performers here at all – the exact opposite. I think there’s a lot of artistic self-control in Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters considering what we could have wound up with (and have in similarly experimental collaborations out of the American underground this season).
There’s a limit to the accessibility of grandiosity, but it would appear that these cats know where that limit is and how to straddle it without getting so indulgent that we’re lost in the creative deep-dive that is their playing together. “Trump Funk” gives a deliberately fractured take on excess, thus referencing its titular character in the most ironic and poetic means an electronic piece can.
“Overjoyed” is the most stimulating work on this EP, and I think that if it were extended into a proper jam session beyond the five minutes that it lasts in this record, it could be even more hypnotic than it is in this situation. Once again, control isn’t off the table for Head Fake or Dub Fu Masters in this tracklist, but influencing every move either party would make.
That kind of disciplined approach to making music is what has been largely missing from the alternative content I’ve been seeing on both sides of the dial this July, but in this EP, it’s the order of the day for a consistent seventeen minutes of play I don’t see myself forgetting anytime soon. All in all, Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters is less a battle of wits and more a brilliant combining of forces that was truly long overdue.
Jodi Marxbury