Within The Office Of Eye And Ear - Spiral Trax

Stress Assassin is Henrik Jonsson, Robin to Atmos’ Batman, and the first downtempo release to come from the Spiral Trax stable. This folks is a dub album, and it’s evident that Mr. Jonsson knows his stuff – the influence of Upsetters’ stripped-down dub is all over the place, as is more recent electronic-tinged dub from the likes of Mad Professor, with a tinge of Brian Eno and early German electronic stuff. Where a lot of other trance-dub projects would concentrate on bringing dubby snares and reverb-echo’ed guitar stabs, Stress Assassin works the other way, bringing elements of trance to smooth dubby numbers and making for a very unique sound whether you’re looking at it from a trance or a dub perspective. The sweet synth runs on Motorcycle Boys’ Theme and Special Dish are delightful, where on Time and Lextorp the emphasis is more on the spaces between the sounds, the effect of which is a nice stoned tapestry. The production is superb, and the ubiquitous bass permeates the room like the smoke from exceptionally heavy skunk. If Stress Assassin’s goal is to alleviate the pressures of modern life, then mission accomplished – this is classy smokedown chill that’s your perfect pal for late night headnodding.