When I first saw the press release for Megaliths In Dub I struggled to imagine what ‘dark ambient’ artist Llyn Y Cwn could do to improve on something I thought was pretty perfect. As soon as I started listening a dub version made perfect sense. When I reviewed Megaliths I said ‘It’s hard to rush through, or cherry pick, from this album without breaking the spell it casts as a whole. If you have the time to listen in full then you will find yourself drawn in and becoming aligned with Llyn Y Cwn’s sensitivity for the places he has visited.’ And, ‘an audio experience that shapes, enhances and transforms mood and perception…and every bit as breath-taking as the landscapes that inspired them.’
This re-working feels like the industrial revolution has come to visit the ancient landscapes of the original album. The bucolic peace and solemnity of solid megalithic structures is now broken into its element parts with stone molecules and earth vibrated by subterranean sound systems and heavy machinery rumbling overhead.
This is beauty and the beast with the original as Dr. Jekyll being synthetically reconstituted into a snarling Hyde. But while this metamorphosis maybe a brutal reimagining the juddering subbass and the phased grit of modern technology brings a harsh but glorious magnificence. There are times when the granular storm threatens to engulf us as on the tracks ‘Meini Hirion Shifted’ and ‘Machrie Resonance’ but then there is also the soft ground of ‘Dark Grove’ with its subtle woop-woop noise that drifts over the track’s pulsating heartbeat and ‘Ifan’s Portal’ which combines the warmth of a clearing in the forest with the subtle ticking of a metronome.
You can imagine ancient travellers arriving at the megalithic stones to take ayahuasca and trip out as the solid earth rotates, the stars dance and the rocks vibrate like ancient granite tuning forks. Megaliths in Dub is the sound they might have heard in their heads and Llyn Y Cwn is a man with a cosmic recorder who can summon the spirits and interpret them electronically. I didn’t think Megaliths could be improved but this monolithic, tectonic dub is a wonderful conundrum: perfection made more perfect.
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Review by Paul F Cook
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