Listen to “Red Face Boy (Version)” featuring Natalie Prass, dub by Matthew E. White and Trey Pollard, originally premiered by SPIN:

Dub is a process, invented and refined in Jamaica in the 1970s, that spread throughout the world and has come to inform almost all of the music we listen to in one way or another. At Spacebomb we are dedicated to this process and to the continuous redefinition of what a record can be. We want to see our recordings work in many different ways, in many different frames, maximizing what we do in the studio and demonstrating that a record can be malleable, bendable, and changeable. We are dedicated to improvisation not only as musicians, but as engineers, performers, producers, and creatures of imagination, and hope that our dubs stand as lively, fresh and courageous interactions.

“Red Face Boy (Version)” was given life on November 5th in our attic and features the angelic voice of Natalie Prass, whose full-length Spacebomb debut will arrive in 2014. We took our work on Howard Ivan’s satin-lined R&B and sent it through a kaleidoscope of delay and reverb, sailing it through the Spacebomb void, through circuits, tubes, tape and out the other side. Improvising, reimagining, and playing with electricity until we discovered something–recognizable and related, but sincerely new. Then, Natalie, fresh off the stage, spent all night revealing an as yet unseen spirit from the track. Her sensational ability to be strong, gentle at the right times, and graceful throughout, brought a focus to the wildness around her. It felt like music made as a community, centered around the mixing console, watching faders rise and fall, knobs turn left and right, and something new arise, spinning from a framework that we had already built.

Spacebomb holds tight to the idea that Dub is not a genre, but a way of interacting with recorded music–a process that becomes philosophy. This is truly the first time we have been able to share it with you. Thank you for listening.

Listen to the dub / to the original

Learn more about Howard Ivans

Howard Ivans’ Red Face Boy b/w Pillows 7″ will be released on November 19. Preorder now.