Incoming from Vancouver B.C., acclaimed producers Iha and Captivate have teamed up for a new offering under their combined alias, xlbb.
The two-track EP is a primordial display of the PNW sound, bubbling with organic textures and tectonic subsonics. Loosejaw washes in and ripples across auricular surfaces with tidal bass frequencies. Melonboat, with waveforms soaked in salt, propagates fuzzy foliage with the blossomed energy of coastal overgrowth, teeming with life.
Iha and Captivate share a bit about the release for themselves below. Visit Ommaya Records on Bandcamp for a copy of your own.
What elements did you use to capture an atmosphere that you feel encapsulates the sound of the PNW?
Captivate: Loosejaw is the track on there that really captures the PNW for me. Dubstep has been a staple out here for nearly two decades & we did our best to meld that influence with an organic, psychedelic sound palette.
IHA: I think the PNW compared to other bass scenes in NA is particularly slower and sludgier, dense and textural. Having access to the ocean, forests, and mountains really inspire these sounds which we hear often in our go-to underground spaces like the Deli, Active Passive, Slowtempo stage at Bass Coast, and Osmosis in PDX. I like to imagine that there’s creatures guarding these realms.
Weirdly enough we didn’t actually use any field recordings for this - a lot of the atmospheric samples like the water came out organically and tied everything together.
What do you feel is making the PNW scene unique at this point in time?
Captivate: I think that the scene out here has always been unique, thanks to the natural beauty around us, and the lengths people go to to organize events immersed in it. Also, the level of crowd participation at festivals is like nowhere else in the world. Watching the area’s love for earthy, dub-centric music crop up in different ways over the years has been great to witness, and at this particular moment I am loving watching it cross-polinate with techno more than ever in the PNW - the combination of organic and progressive/forward-thinking fits the geography & people so well.
IHA: Not much to add there but want to express a general appreciation for what’s happening in the PNW right now across Vancouver, Alberta, Seattle, Portland, and the Bay Area. There’s a certain earnest quality in the music here that’s kind of evolved from the west coast roots: psychedelic, deep, dubby and playful. In the last few years I’ve met so many creatives that are kind of on the same tip yet doing it in their own unique ways. It’s super inspiring how almost everyone I meet is eager to collaborate, witness and uplift each other.
Is there a specific space, place, time, or experience that lent an influence to either of you on this track?
Captivate: Not particularly! For me, ideas tend to form within the creation process. I try to sit down in with as empty a mind as possible and coax an idea into existence. Loosejaw’s core idea came from IHA designing the ferocious monster sounds & us collaboratively refining them into what you hear on the track. Everything else built up naturally around that.
Melonboat, funnily enough came about from us sampling a meme and bringing that goofy energy into the studio. Neither of us generally make music on such a cheeky tip, but this one really wrote itself.
IHA: There’s something really fulfilling about making tracks that aren’t exactly for peak times, or intending for it to be ~that~ club tool. I think we’ve been inspired a lot by the deeper bass scenes in France/Italy/Japan, labels like Bait, and personally been really loving producers Prieste5s and comm. Loosejaw actually came from me asking Alex to show me how to make dubstep- and along with my worldbuilding tendencies and natural influence of the PNW flavour, the track ended up writing itself! And yes Melonboat was born out of our obsession with a meme.
We never expected these two to pair together as we were just testing what our project could look like, but somehow it expresses the two sides of what we love about the PNW sound. Big appreciation from both of us to Kekoa and Sawyer for seeing the vision :)
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