RESPECT | Dubokaj & Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry

Mountainwater, the debut single, begins with a L$P shoutout to the record label Dubokaj co-founded and where he released his previous albums, Mouthwatering Records, misspelling it Mountainwater Records, which is great poetry, to begin with! The field recordings capture the sound of the secret Swiss Mountains Laboratory door slamming. The album’s concept is one of the disruptive attention spans of the journey from the virtual realm into reality and then back again.

The synth riffs on the Mountainwater single almost act like doorways: the soundtrack the way we turn our computers and laptops on and off, but the main feeling is that we are actually commuting between nature, the Swiss mountains, and indoor space. Maybe we are in front of a screen watching something on Daydreamflix, your favorite Dubokaj & Lee $cratch Perry surrealist broadcasting channel. This could be the last episode of Black Mirror.

The session with Lee was this intense, fiery, and surreal experience. The field recordings, on the other hand, are very meditative and personal. When I record them, I always travel alone. So, as a result, they’re infused with my memories and what I felt at the time.

Jamming with Lee Scratch Perry stayed with me for a very long time! I was so profoundly affected by it that I started to hear and see the world differently. Mago, my bass player, who helped record the session, called me the day after and told me that spending time with Lee Scratch Perry felt like you had an extension added to your synapses; and that this extension added something beautiful and precious to your experience of life. It’s as if just by being around the man an update was installed, like a plugin which makes you feel more positive about everything.

– Dubokaj

All the collages illustrating the Daydreamflix LP are done by Cristiana Bucureci, a Romanian-based collage artist. Cristiana debuted with her collage art in 2012 with the Loud Blood Youth series, collaborating with a local electro-fusion band. She has illustrated 13 songs from the band’s mixtape for the project. Her collages are the passport to a futuristic-decorative dimension, being made in mixed techniques, both digital and cut & paste. The artist has exhibited in Tel Aviv, at Romanian Design Week, in Bucharest, in Timișoara, Cluj, and Iași. Some of her work can be viewed on instagram.com/cristiana_bucureci/.

Mouthwatering Records is a Switzerland-based independent label, publishing, management, and artist development Company, releasing various styles, from Hip Hop to Dub house, from Breakbeat to Soul-Jazz, with at least one foot on the Dancefloor run by Andreas Ryser and Daniel Jakob.

The Sound of Art to Come Records is a Transylvanian-based platform and record label, home of Dub, Electronic, and Experimental music outcasts and exploring mavericks from all over the world. Deep in the heart of the Carpathian Mountains, SoAC transmits from the dimension of The Shape of Dub to Come. The label curates, collages, and remixes dubs and riddims inspired by film soundtracks.