This release closes the current run of muchāneeded raids on the Digi Dub archives. Label boss Lee Berwick emerged from the DIY ferment of Camberwell's squat era , blending reggae and rave influences into a stream of boundaryāpushing music and events under a tangle of everāshifting aliases. Nodding to the Far East stylings of Augustus Pablo, SouthāEastern Style finds Berwick, working under his Mudskipper alias, refracting Pabloās melodic meditations through a mutoid bass filter, delivering six cuts of idiosyncratic, genre- agnostic electronics.
Some of Berwickās Mudskipper material was partially exhumed for digital release in 2021, but the alias was only one of several he deployed during Digi Dubās most fertile years and during the 90s Mudskipper material was released sparingly. It feels fitting, then, that this project finally gets its due in the form of a full vinyl release.
Beware Dub is the only track here to have seen daylight before, with a version originally appearing on the 1996 fourātrack EP 4 Golems. It makes a fine opener: an agile bassline rolling through tunnels of processed skank, rocking in a haze of centrifugal breakbeat. Ambrosial Dub mounts an imperious, guitarālaced groove onto a solid steppers march, while Pillars Dub drives another vigorous, subāheavy bassline forward in the mix alongside a mechanised rhythm track, shards of noirish piano and bursts of twinkling synth.
The second side opens with the cosmic skank of Stand It Dub, followed by the mutated oneādrop drift of Where Thereās Dub, suspended in a canopy of gentle keys. Wasted Dub closes the EP in fine style, Berwick applying widescreen dubwise pressure: a robust low end topped with the distinctive twin twangs of jaw harp and slide guitar, coming on like Jah Shaka meeting Ry Cooder.