Balance is sometimes just as eerie as it is necessary. When one walks down the street at night, usually the environment around that person is controlling his thoughts, his actions and reactions. If it’s late, and one is listening to music that is creepy, the environment will start to make that person anxious and fearful of what’s next to come. If the person is listening to something relaxing, he will likely feel the same relaxing tones tingle in his bones. But what happens when you take a plethora of emotions, environments and soundscapes and throw it into a dub trap? You get King Midas Sound, more specifically, their full-length Waiting For You off the expert Hyperdub label. The journey between darkness and the light begins with the moment you press play on the record.

Kevin Martin (better known to some as The Bug), Roger Robinson, and Hitomi all put their talents together to form an organic sound that begins with silky, dulcet tones between spaced-out drums and claps, while Robinson and Hitomi harmonize delicately between each second of air in tracks. Tracks such as title track “Waiting For You” and “One Thing” elaborate the space between beats and breaths with vocals humanizing an atmosphere surrounded by chills, darkness, footsteps and the stench of cigarettes. The massive dub vibe gets magnified in “Earth A Kill Ya,” with spoken word, minimal percussion and slight brass between female vocal bits.

Speaking of the female vocals, while they aren’t the sole focus of the album’s sound, what is noticeable is the balance between Roger Robinson and Hitomi in terms of how vocals are treated as vessels for humanity between the story in each track. Robinson’s voice still shines with detail, at times it feels as fragile as the environment around him. Along with some terrific effects and sounds, Hitomi provides some amazing support on the record, with the track “Goodbye Girl” providing an audible canvas of question/answer between the vocalists.

The album overall shines with Martin’s production, with chills provided by filters, reverberation and the sense of shaken souls crying out each track in the album. The feeling of murky sensuality is provided by the trio putting their skills together, with the eerie yet personal vocal balance provided by Robinson and Hitomi, the album is a representation of soul-searching journeys of the night. Get out, take a listen, grab a smoke and walk;  the night’s got all the time in the world for these stories to be heard.

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