As he was working on
Three/Three, the long-awaited fourth album by his influential hip-hop production alias
Dabrye,
Tadd Mullinix began working on a different project that took inspiration from the early days of jungle as well as seminal releases on
Warp Records and the second wave of Detroit techno. The name
X-Altera is a reference to the Latin phrase ex altera, meaning "from or of the other side," as well as a tribute to
Underground Resistance's
X-101 and
X-102 offshoots. The music cross-pollinates drum'n'bass with techno, focusing on smooth, atmospheric melodies and shredded, uptempo breakbeats, but never sounding too derivative of either style. It's a fresh sound that recalls artists like
4hero and
Kenny Larkin without directly copying them, and fits in a late-2010s context along with producers such as
Skee Mask and
Om Unit while doing something different and unique.
Mullinix succeeds at balancing lush textures and uplifting moods with a hint of darkness, keeping things from sounding too fluffy. Nothing here is as hard as the roughneck jungle
Mullinix previously produced as one half of
Soundmurderer & SK-1 -- there are no brutalist Amen break tear-outs, and ragga vocals are used sparingly here. The beats sound jittery yet airy, and the synth sweeps are generally sunny and euphoric.
Mullinix switches things up by dropping the tempo a bit on the swirly, spacy "Parallel Rites (Kepler-452b)," which closely resembles early
Black Dog or
B12, while "Shoreline (Can't Understand)" seems like a hybrid of U.K. garage and darkside jungle. If
Jacob's Optical Stairway ever made a second album, it would be tough competition with this one.
X-Altera is a fresh reinvention, as well as
Mullinix's second brilliant album of 2018. ~ Paul Simpson