Rather than relying on synthetics exclusively to craft the right melodic backdrop for a clubby piece like “Trump Funk,” Head Fake and Dub Fu Masters utilize organic instrumentation – bass, drums, guitar – to set the stage for what is easily the best track on their new EP Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters. There’s a lot of angst in the groove here, but we never get the chance to get lost in the shadow it casts for the pure reason that the instrumentation is too hypnotically well-synchronized to focus on the darker elements of the song. Juxtaposition is a key theme in this EP, and if you’re into deeper-thinking music as much as I am, Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters is bound to blow your mind this August.
For being a club record, this extended play has a broad sonic presence that goes against the trending minimalism I’ve been hearing from players around the underground all year long, but I love it all the more for this precise reason. Head Fake isn’t cheaply adorning immersive beats with a barebones psychedelia in the same way that a lot of acts have been in collaboration with up and comers of Dub Fu Masters’ pedigree they’re really digging into the possibilities of every beat, every harmony, and collecting them inside of emotional expressions like the lyrics of “Overjoyed.” There’s a lot of retro componentry to the arrangement of the first and third songs in the tracklist, but unlike “One Step,” “Overjoyed” is almost purely poetic in its distribution of texture and verses in equal measure.
“One Step” has the most experimental attitude of the three songs on Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters, but I don’t think it was the wrong choice to get us started here at all. Contrarily, it lets us know right from the jump that this record wasn’t made to merely inform us of an intellectually stimulating new collaboration, but to actually cover an aesthetic largely neglected by the mainstream. There’s an adventurousness to this piece that I just don’t hear in the majority of content to land on my desk, let alone those created by two relatively distinct parties such as these, and it makes the EP really hard to put down once you’ve gotten a taste of its most charming elements.
I’ve always been partial to the dirtier, more rebellious side of the electronica coin, and Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters more or less feels like an album made specifically for my tastes. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy the burgeoning generation of indie enthusiasts starting to trickle into the marketplace, but everything about Head Fake and Dub Fu Masters’ new record together speaks to the conflictive songcraft that has become so celebrated by Gen Z in the last few years. I’d love to hear these players get together in the future to try and pick up where they’ve left off here, but if this is an isolated release, it’s still going to be one I won’t soon forget.
Kim Muncie
