From Transylvania

Where is the meeting point between Romanian folklore and Jamaican-influenced dub? Lil Obeah, from Transylvania, is there, with hints of goth rock and industrial electronica for measure. From more traditional sounds and familiar stories, Lil Obeah creates a new sonic world, playing to Transylvania’s supernatural reputation and the spatial eeriness of dubby effects. The record’s instrumentation is just as eclectic, including theremin and delicately tumbling santur alongside more typical dub, rock and electronic sounds. Whispery, often chanting, poetic vocals melt hauntingly in.

This genre-melding collection was created with some of the best. Fusion maestros Transglobal Underground – aka Tim Whelan and Hamid Mantu – produced many of the tracks. Others are a collaboration with late Ethio-dub wizard Nick Page, known for Dub Colossus and, appropriately, as Count Dubulah. More locally, Bucharest-based Marius Costache produced the heavier ‘Haos (Chaos)’. Beside gothic fiction and horror movies, these sounds evoke a real and recent history. Words of modern Romanian poets become lyrics, alongside the sampled voice of executed dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. Distinctly Romanian and worldly, this ambitious, stimulating record leans into the past to spin something new as Obeah sings: ‘Where do I end the chaos?/Where do I begin the change?’