MUTEK | Exploratory Vibe at Holy Tongue, Dub Trio

On Thursday night, Holy Tongue’s performance was one of the highlights of the Nocturne series. The London trio has been around since the end of the previous decade and can count on solid experience, with two albums to their credit and a third soon to be released, not to mention the convincing collaboration of Sam Shackleton (album The Tumbling Psychic Joy of Now), which shows the respect the master has for the trio.

Thus, percussionist Valentina Magaletti responded to producer Al Wootton (formerly known by the pseudonym Deadboy) and Japanese bassist and producer Zongamin, whose real name is Susumu Mukai.

Together in this halo of bluish or glowing colors, they transform Jamaican dub into a transcultural and exploratory journey that is typically British—we can trace its roots and spirit back to the 1980s and 1990s, the heyday of Jah Wobble and Transglobal Underground. More specifically, the overall vibe is dub, but these thick layers of sound draw on psychedelia, post-punk, ambient, and even ancient European music.

The bass is electric, the rhythms are acoustic or electronic, and the harmonic and textural environment is generated by Wooton. It was during this set in particular that we were able to appreciate the skill of percussionist Valentina Magaletti, who was welcomed as a star of the 26th MUTEK, performing there three times. Her strokes are precise, the sound of her drums and cymbals has been rigorously fine-tuned, and this queer woman is an excellent percussionist, at least for the stylistic corpus to which she devotes herself with her colleagues.

Perfect for gliding through the night with minimal effort.