Slim Levy – Snippet Sounds

With dub, the fun often stops. At least when it comes to continuing this Jamaican tradition of reduction by present-day means. There is enough bad dub around, especially digital dub. The French musician Slim Levy, by contrast, gets pretty much everything right on Snippet Sounds. Beginning with the fact that he does not necessarily use »typical« instruments, but his children’s toy synthesisers, in order to produce an unorthodox sound with a species-appropriate riddim.

The best thing about it: his results do not sound like some forcedly »original« concept, but pleasantly scratchy, raw and, above all, handmade. Less silly than playful, the tracks have a kind of childish seriousness, without concealing that an accomplished musician is responsible for them. Reverb and echo are, of course, always present as basic ingredients. One readily believes in Slim Levy’s inspiration from the unorthodox DIY approach of dub pioneer Lee »Scratch« Perry. A cheap electric piano, as in »Chalaladub«, fits perfectly into that. And the melodica, often smiled at as a »children’s instrument«, which is likewise indispensable for Slim Levy, has in any case long since belonged to dub’s basic inventory.