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Per Will Lynch at Resident Advisor: Following Kassem Mosse's remixes of Simone White from January, the latest 12-inch on Honest Jon's shows the London label matchmaking again, this time bringing together Wareika Hill Sounds, the collective led by Calvin "Bubbles" Cameron of '70s reggae outfit Light Of Saba, and Tapes, an electronic producer with a warped, modern take on dub. According to the label, Datura Mystic "started out a couple of years ago as a grounationdrumming session above the old headquarters of the Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari, in Wareika Hill, Kingston. Four funde, a repeta and a bass drum." Tapes, who's credited as a producer on the record, reworked the material in London.
Datura is a profoundly hallucinogenic plant that was popular among the Aztecs and is still used by other tribes today "as a preparation for the hunt, in rain-dance rituals and puberty rites, and above all in witchcraft." Datura Mystic is more tame than that might lead you to imagine. The title track is sweltering and crystal clear, its cool flutes drifting over a sluggish reggae beat. "Datura Mystic Version" lives up to its title a bit more: a drum circle freak-out with a muffled, hazy delivery, as if it were coming from the other end of a tunnel—Tapes' production touch, one would think. Though you might have hoped to hear the London artist a bit more clearly (especially following the addictive "Somebodies Baby"), Datura Mystic is a wonderfully breezy modern dub EP.
