Daniel Savio - Viktorious Daniel Savio

Few producers of electronic music in Sweden have a more inimical soundscape than Daniel Savio. That could be one of the main reasons so few have made remixes of his tunes that challenge the original versions. Also, all his musical excursions owe a great deal to the quirkiness of dub in all its forms, especially that of classical roots reggae. On paper, reworkings of Savio’s tunes in the dub tradition of roots should be a pointless effort.

But Viktorious effort is everything but pointless. A slew of bastard electro bangers are given a wash in a way that highlights the space between the beats; all of a sudden beats that were funky in an almost claustrophobic and contorted way that are the hallmark of Savio’s productions are out in orbit and envelop us slowly. From a stressed out intensity to a stroll in the open air. The kickdrums that were pounding in a way suggesting a direct lineage from the space jams of Newcleus, Jonzun Crew and DJ Unknown are all of a sudden swapped from that militant drumming that you could otherwise find on Bunny Lee productions, on Scientist’s dubs and in the rhythm section of the Roots Radics.

Why even mention that all this comes from Sweden? It’s more fitting to call this a dub conference in space. With every tune… we get time to dwell on the music, before we might have been so caught up in the headrush of beats that we forgot to cool down and just listen to the bliss contained. It’s a celebration of Savio’s musical intuition and Viktorious ridiculously adroit ways around a studio. A temple of boom, reimagined. Count yourselves blessed to be invited.