doctor zygote: grupo zygote

Welcome to the first installment of the Black Acre library series curated and created by long-time hip-hop production boss and Strange U beat-bruiser, Doctor Zygote. His mantra in creating this LP has an almost Jack White level of reductionism. "In this day and age where people have almost too many sonic options at their fingertips, I find it easier to spark my creativity if I limit myself in some way, give myself a set of rules to work within on a project. That's why on this one I decided to only use sounds I'd played and recorded myself, no samples." Although Grupo Zygote masquerades as a throw-back library album, its genre-busting content places it on the cutting edge of Black Acre's output. The dissonant sounds of giallo are dripping with the grainy gore of '70s horror. Nods are given to contemporary classics like Photek's Hidden Camera while Eastern jazz and the heavy tape delay of King Tubby are regular visitors. It's Zygote's basement-dubbing techniques which hold together this album bursting with globe-spanning flavor. "It was really fun playing with dub mixing techniques on this project. Almost all the tracks use tape echoes I hooked up using my tape machine and the mixer." As you can tell from the depth of production on offer here, Dr. Zee is no new-jack, dropping his first jungle record when he was just 16 and following with two more on the classic Essex imprint Juice Records. Turntablism was then his pathway back into realms of hip-hop where he still breaks boundaries with long-time cohort Jazz T on their 14-year deep imprint Boot Records. If this wasn't enough, Doctor Zygote has a strong reputation in modern electronics through his leftward Zoot label.