With their latest EP on Challenger Deep, Inner Echo explore the depths of dub in a sharpened manner that the Bristol duo had already shown on previous releases, for instance on Moonshine Recordings.
Pressing basslines at a measured tempo, dub chords fading into the distance and steadily developing modulations also produce two vivid pieces on this EP, each of which places demands on a sound system’s frequency response across the full bandwidth and can also serve as an optimal reference track – especially when the woofers need to be tested.
With »Playa Hermosa«, the A-side offers an unagitated yet forceful piece that shines above all through precisely deployed distortions and its grooving bassline. A washed-out chord joins it, seeming by turns to rise into and dive down into the impenetrable depths of the sea.
On the B-side, the low-end of »Embers« quite literally sweeps any residue out of whatever unreached corners and angles remain, while above it a portentous siren glides; acid growls modulated by filters and delays, meanwhile, are interrupted by rough orchestral dub chords as they attempt to penetrate the room.
