Two years ago, Dublab launched the Echo Expansion Tour. It was so successful that the artists on the bill were commissioned to create an 8 track EP. Now that EP has finally become a full-length album, a collection of soothing organic beats that has managed to live up to the hype.

While the styles of the contributors vary, there is a shockingly cohesive vibe. Life Force Trio kicks it all off with a vituostic, Asian-influenced live-version of ‘Alice!,’ followed by a cut from Adventure Time that deftly scrambles the jazz standard with some frantic industrial beats before Blank Blue returns to the new-age sound on ‘Eyes Closed.’ The darker more synth-heavy stuff by Dntel, Ras G, and Flying Lotus is hidden at the album’s core, making for an interesting sonic journey. Once you reach the other side you get the pleasure of experiencing the bi-polar sound of Hashim B’s ‘Tokyo to LA Steez,’ a track that progresses from the bizarre depths of cacophonic claps and crashes to a sweeping, funky synth masterpiece. Nothing on the album is too heavy or too club-oriented, which I suppose is the reason I like it. However the production is top notch, and there’s enough underground edginess present to spike the new-agey vibe, giving it that extra dimension that makes any form of music worth listening to. There’s no better example of this than the closing track, ‘New Fibrillation.’ Andrew Pekler lays a backdrop of gently psychedelic electric guitars and chimes over which rumbling electronic bass and unsettling keyboard bleeps snake around one another to form an eerie sonic compliment. The names on the bill alone should be enough to excite heads in the electronic world, but rest assured the music will as well. Echo Expansion is what happens when all-stars get behind the boards.

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