- artist
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Ganja Beats
- release-title
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Paradise and Tranquility
- label
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Organic Recs
Ganja Beats was one of the many guises of the multi talented Jake Stephenson who sadly passed away earlier this year. His releases over the last decade were under such names as Shamanic Tribe on Acid and Optic Eye and covered cosmic to goa to new age to dub. ‘Paradise & Tranquility’, as you might imagine, very much falls into the ambient dub category, providing a heady mix of submarine bass and tranquil ambience with a sprinkle of deep rhythms. Its sound goes back a lot further than many of today’s chill out artists with clear nods to Lee Scratch Perry and King Tubby and 80s electro dubber Adrian Sherwood (especially “Herb is Good” ), as well as dub ambient pioneers like the Orb. There’s actually only a few heavy dub tracks, but it’s the use of space that’s so telling in its debt to classic dub, even on very pastoral tracks like ‘The Lost Forest’. With a name like Ganja Beats, you know pretty much what to expect and yes, in a very good way, it does exactly what it says on the (stash) tin. JM
