Bleep

Tadd Mullinix unveils his latest project X-Altera, following on from his epic Three/Three album released earlier this year under his Dabrye alias. X-Altera finds Mullinix focusing on the deeper side of his 90s drum & bass and ambient techno listening habits. The result is a sunkissed sound that will have a strong appeal to anyone into Good Looking, 4 Hero, Wax Doctor, The Black Dog PFM and (late 90s-era) Moving Shadow.

While many know Mullinix for his world-renowned hip-hop project Dabrye, he is no stranger to the breakbeat. Between the years 1998 and 2006 as half of Soundmurderer & SK-1 alongside Todd Osborn, Tadd Mullinix cut the sort of ruffneck ragga jungle that would make Remarc reach for the lasers. Returning to the timeless 90s sound in 2018, X-Altera sheds the rufige in favour of a more sleek mode of transport, one that owes as much to techno and even trip-hop as it does to drum & bass.

Seeming to follow the arch-junglist trajectory of mellowing out as the years pass by, Mullinix's newly found production guise for the lighter ends of the DNB spectrum is no doubt a nice surprise turn from a producer who is widely known for switching genre lanes within projects at a seemingly monthly rate. The skill here though is how he never gets caught in the one genre trap, cutting tracks while being aware which turn to make next and what sound to re-create as his own.

X-Altera is the sound of Mullinix looking at his own early drum & bass and techno productions and cutting out the cybernetic techstep muscle to reveal the silvery liquid skeleton underneath.