Sun Araw And M. Geddes Gengras’ Duppy Gun Project Shares Blossoming “Rasta Life”
The LA experimentalists go dub with this hazy, blossoming and pitch-adjusted track and video.
Although LA experimentalists Sun Araw and M. Geddes Gengras might not have the dubwise technical mastery of a King Tubby, Scientist, or Lee "Scratch" Perry, what they do bring to the genre is an intriguing sense of painterly sonics and noise-inflected psychedelic atmosphere. Their engagement with Jamaican music began with their 2012 collaborative album Icon Give Thank with reggae legends The Congos, and a continuation of that trajectory has found them doing a project called Duppy Gun. If you're wondering who is doing exactly what on these tracks, this self-description should clarify things: "Producing and curating riddims from a growing family of Duppy Gun producers, Stallones (Sun Araw) and Gengras ferry them to Jamaica and record vocalists wherever they are able to find talent and an electrical outlet. Includes production from Peaking Lights, Matthewdavid, and more."
Today they've given us both the audio and video for the hazy, blossoming and pitch-adjusted "Rasta Life," featuring vocals by Dayone (real name Carleton Sappleton), off the forthcoming album "Multiply" Duppy Gun Prod. Vol. 1, due November 18th on Stones Throw (pre-order it here). The LP features further contributions from I Jahbar, Early One, Fyah Flames, Dayone, G Sudden, Lukan I, Bookfa, Singin' Crazy, and Cerassietea. Sink into your seat as the video builds from a documentary-style capturing of the song's recording process into a super-pleasant, hallucinatory bit of grainy and variegated video art.