E.N.D.E. - G.U.T. [Umland Records 061]

E.N.D.E. (german: end). Here used as abbreviation for the Essener Noise Dub Ensemble, a new formed group of musicians comprised of Max Wehner, Este Kirchhoff, Simon Camatta and Moritz Anthes which made their album debut on March 18th, 2k23 via Umland Records with "G.U.T.", a six tracks and roughly 53 minutes spanning longplay piece which - according to the accompanying press release - draws inspiration from Dub, hand-made Techno, Jungle, Drum'n'Bass and other electronic, bass-oriented music. With the track titles in their particular order forming the line "Four" / "People" / "Falling" / "Deep" / "Into A" / "K-Hole" and therefore channeling expectations towards the dark side of the sonic spectrum we see the quartet starting the journey on a classic, classy and deeply melancholic Roots Dub tip before slowly progressing into more contemporary, probably slightly Downtempo / TripHop informed territories, even pushing forward into what once was referred to as Crooklyn Dub by members of the famed, yet criminally underrated WordSound label, referencing BrokenBeat x Phusion albeit with unusual heavy bass and FX ridden guitar sequences before switching into uptempo live Drum'n'Bass mode and finally ending up on a Skweee-infused Dub note and, once again, dreamy Roots x Future Dub minimalisms. Defo a thrilling journey for all bass music headz out there. Highly recommended!