Overcast Radio – Planet People

For Dubs Alive Records’ 9th release, we are honored to present you with, Overcast Radio: Planet People . OVERCAST RADIO is Chris Jones, composer/producer/sound designer/DJ based in New York. An accomplished percussionist and bassist trained in both classical and jazz traditions, his list of film and television credits (as Circa 70) is lengthy and includes such critically acclaimed productions as True Blood, The Sopranos, and American Horror Story. Jones has been performing since the age of 16, and was one of the earliest stateside DJs to embrace dubstep, performing at Dub War NYC — the first and most influential dubstep night in the United States — where he played alongside such legends as Joe Nice, Dave Q, and Kode9. His tracks as Overcast Radio have been released on Betamorph and Surface Tension, and have gotten airplay on the Mary Anne Hobbs show on BBC Radio 1.

PLANET PEOPLE is a growling, expansive set of delicate electro-acoustic manipulations and trippy, cooled-out excursions into the stratosphere of dubstep. Accented with heady murmurs and half-buried incantations, no part of “Planet People” is safe from the dub effects and meticulous sound design so prevalent throughout the EP. Jones’s own guitar licks stab, float away, dip and burst forth again; snare hits and horns explode into fragments; the sub-bass wobbles ever so slightly on its side as it evolves and develops, tripping over itself, flipping inside out and threading itself through the dense, hallucinogenic fabric Jones weaves.

Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Christine Dominguez (B.O.B’s “Airplanes”) lends her vocals on “Golden Owl,” a track that seems a conceptual interpenetration of woman and machine, with a programmed synth line that acts like a designed language. Here, bits of her voice are sliced up mid-phrase, applied like an instrument, while a drum loop breaks down into interesting variations. With its subtle, cinematic tone lurking in the background, it manages to feel both chilled and frenetic, and the pacing is utterly on point, like a robot learning to dance to broken-footwork in a large, reflective ballroom.

“Reappear” again features vocals by Christine Dominguez, over a slippery broken-step beat constructed so cleverly that it at times feels bi-directional. The digital distortion, effects and signal processing are executed with such precision that they themselves become part of the melody. Dominguez’ soulful voice, meanwhile, stutters, lurches and bends in on itself, while a sparse sub-bass buzzes out and reappears at perfect rhythmic intervals.

“Luton” features Daniel Carter (who has played with DJ Logic, Yo La Tengo, Matthew Shipp, and many more in the NYC avant-garde scene) on horns, complementing a skittery steppers beat, and processed guitar line. Bits and pieces of static pop in and out of existence like quantum bubbles, while immaculately textured sub-bass pushes and pulls, teasing the mix gently in every direction.

“Cool Eagle” is a sparse and jazzy trip-hop number anchored by a swirly bass line and dubbed out into an oblivion of echoes. Its cut-up Rhodes line grows along with fluttery hats and wispy horns (again by Daniel Carter.) The freshness here is in the panning and effects, through which Jones keeps the listener guessing even in the midst of the simplest drum patterns.

The soundtrack to a film that will not be made for a half-century, PLANET PEOPLE is at once stripped bare and engorged, intense and restrained, calculated and chaotic. It is a co-mingling of genres from a singularly talented sound designer who utilizes them like palettes, and whose most recent work elevates the dubstep sensibility into the realm of the avant-garde.