Kush Arora The Dread Bass Chronicles

• Words: Justin Hopper
• Label: Kush Arora
• XLR8R Rating: 8/10

San Francisco producer Kush Arora makes digital dancehall for us to dance to in 2012—a futuristic, globalized, bhangra-infused ragga built for the impending eco-disaster foretold by the Mayan calendar. Together with a series of vocalists hand picked from the finest in the global dub club—MC Zulu, Warrior Queen, N4SA—Arora effortlessly splices together Asian and digital-dancehall dub. Proof positive that global bass has progressed far beyond mere genre-mashing, Dread Bass is concerned with aesthetics and textures. “11th Hour Escape” is a broken-dub hybrid with a bass so palpable you can trace its outline in the air, just underneath the high-tension strings.