Today Amsterdam's The Mauskovic Dance Band have announced they will be pushing back the release date of their forthcoming EP Shadance Hall. The EP marks their debut on Dekmantel Records and will now be released on out April 17th. On Shadance Hall, they concoct a tantalising brew of no-wave, psych rock, cumbia, power dub and numerous other colourful shades of global grooves. The full release drops on April 17th, but the dub versions of the EP are already available digitally. Pre-order Shadance Hall on digital HERE + vinyl HERE.
The band were forced to postpone their upcoming SXSW and North American tour dates but are working on rescheduling for later in 2020.
No stranger to Dekmantel as one of half of electro-grouping Bruxas, Nic Mauskovic leads his percussive troupe through a heavy, trippy, disco fiesta. The Mauskovic Dance Band's epic sonic journey on Shadance Hall began deep in the Welsh valleys. Partnering dusty drum machines alongside phat layers of congas, assorted bric-a-brac of percussive tools, and distortion-soaked guitars, Mauskovic's ensemble suspend the tempo and turn up the grooves. on this soundsystem-inspired, post-punk odyssey. The resulting soundsystem-inspired concoctions are a mixture of 130BPM beats ("Ventura Phase"), Jah Wobble-influenced bass rhythms ("Squeeze Dogs") and Carnival-ready soca-jams ("Theorie Amerikaan").
Taken back to Amsterdam's famed Electric Monkey Studio (a favorite for Ghanian great Ebo Taylor and Dutch youngbloods Jungle By Night alike), Mauskovic teamed up with engineer Kasper Frenkel to mix down the record. Here the two acted as Mad Professors, experimenting with the recordings and making multiple versions of each track by creating tape loops, bouncing the audio back and forth and layering the resulting recordings in waves of reverb and echo. In classic dub style, the band ended up with dub edits, rich in space echo, reverb, crush, and dub-goodness, completing the second half of Shadance Hall like a funky palindrome. It rounds off an expressive EP, bursting with inventiveness, projected at the listener as a maze of influences to get lost within.
Tracklisting:
A1. Ventura Phase
A2. Squeeze Dogs
A3. Theorie Amerikaan
A4. Controleer Jezelf
B1. Controleer Jezelf - Rhythm Version
B2. Theorie Amerikaan - Space Dub
B3. Squeeze Dogs - Crunch Dub
B4. Ventura - Dub
Photo Credit: David Barajas
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