Jungle Fairy Tale continues and builds on Dog Collar's total commitment to the spirit of headbanging, taking his unique sound to even greater heights.
Reviewed by Ash
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As always, please remember to support Dog Collar's work by streaming the EP! The links to the EP on all platforms can be accessed through Dog Collar's Linktree! Also, feel free to check out my review of Dog Collar's previous studio album, Turbo Squid, at this link.
UPDATE: This article has been updated to include credits for the sample used in "catherine", per Dog Collar's request!
AT THE OUTSET OF the most recent fall semester, Dog Collar, known as Sunil Prahbu to his colleagues on the eighth floor, released his most recent album, the nine-track, 38-minute Turbo Squid. Packed back-to-front with hard-edged, bass-heavy electronic bangers, Turbo Squid combined techno, jungle, and drum & bass influences into a chaotic, frenzied package. The end result felt utterly tailor-made for strobe lights, massive speaker racks, and crowded nightclubs—a scene not unfamiliar to Dog Collar considering his status as a regular presence as a live performer, most frequently as one half of Ecliptic alongside fellow MTech undergrad Kid Reno. I myself really enjoyed the album—the grounded sample choices mixed with truly ingenious manipulation and constantly-evolving processing resulted in a really grimy, hard-edged aesthetic that for me is a sound uniquely associated with Sunil and his work. Turbo Squid ended up being unequivocally one of my favorite techno projects of last semester, and I found myself still bumping tracks like "Multi Split Scan" and "Praise Dobbler" well into the new year!
Luckily, Sunil didn't make us wait too long for a new Dog Collar project. This latest EP, Jungle Fairy Tale, released during the thick of finals week last December, and feels like a stylistic branching-off from Turbo Squid. While Jungle Fairy Tale retains Dog Collar's grimy, fast-paced, dance-oriented drum grooves, the sample choices employed here are generally brighter & more ethereal than those that appeared on the previous LP. The resulting intermarriage between dusty jungle breakbeats and heady, sparkling synthesizer samples creates an interesting, varied soundscape that feels like emerging into a proverbial sunrise following the underwater darkness of Turbo Squid. If you're brand new to the universe of Dog Collar, then Jungle Fairy Tale makes for an excellent introduction to Sunil's trademark swirling, undulating production; if you're a returning fan, like me, then this new EP feels like an entertaining & compelling stylistic advancement of his established style, pushing Dog Collar's unique aesthetic forward into new territory.
The fairy tale begins with a track called "catherine", which plunges us headfirst into the music with a downward-sweeping filter over a fast-paced drum break and Phrygian bass riff, in an intro that almost evoked the aesthetics of surf rock for me were it not for the recontextualization of these elements into something that feels distinctly jungle. The instrumental soundscape here is really interesting, as we get some flickering analog synth chords and a soaring pseudo-theremin synth lead thick with vibrato for an unhinged retro vibe; think Darude's "Sandstorm" crossed with Aphex Twin. This is a sample of "Up! Up! Up!" from the Catherine: Full Body OST, sped up and manipulated in another display of Sunil's trademark sampling prowess. A wubby, distorted offbeat synth bass takes up the pulse in the track's second movement as a spoken, chopped vocal sample enters, proclaiming "we control the sound" over and over with thunderous aplomb. "catherine" makes for a rather convincing argument that Dog Collar does, indeed, control the sound, as the various elements are mashed together expertly to create a thoroughly energetic and invigorating final product with an excellent sense of dancefloor rhythm. The track eventually exchanges its wubby bass for a thickly distorted, sliding 808 that reinvents the track's groove with a huge, sub-heavy pulse that goes insanely hard. I really love Sunil's ability to communicate energy and bombast through his surging, kinetic production; as on Turbo Squid, he always switches out elements at just the right time to keep the track moving forward, showcasing a natural sense of pacing that I feel makes for a big part of why he's able to make tracks as long as this one without ever making the listener bored. "catherine" is the longest track on Jungle Fairy Tale, clocking in at a whopping five minutes and thirty-nine seconds, but Sunil's innate sense of pacing and commitment to dynamism in his production make those five minutes thoroughly enjoyable, and the track never overstays its welcome. In short, "catherine" makes for a resoundingly successful opening to the EP as it reminds the listener that Dog Collar is here to make us dance, and make us dance he does.
The following track, "thisisfun", opens with heavenly, chopped-up synth chords mashed together to create a somewhat off-kilter, ambiguously tonal chord progression under which sparse, fluttering D&B drums and a distant spoken vocal sample enter. The filter work is lovely on this track, as Dog Collar uses a variety of dynamic filters on the bass and synth chords to make them open and close in various ways that feel almost organic, sort of like the way a guitarist might use a wah pedal to achieve an imitation of the human singing voice. Around a minute and a half in, we get sung vocal chops and shimmering chimes in a moment that takes us into significantly brighter territory in terms of mood, like a brief ray of sunshine poking through. The track becomes more clearly tonal, settling in a major key for a brief moment of calm that creates a nice chill vibe and contrasts with the track's earlier modal chaos. Soon enough, though, we're thrown right back into the danceable, bass-heavy soundscape, as a swelling, subby synth bass, hissing open hats, and ethereal washes of chimes reinvigorate the track with a breakneck, driving pulse. I really enjoyed the switch-ups in this track; Dog Collar's dynamic soundscapes have always been something I've enjoyed about his music, but I feel that the careful addition of new elements and subtraction of old ones really elevates the arrangement of this track in particular. Dog Collar's careful curation of the different elements within the track really shines here, resulting in a truly dynamic listening experience that always gives the listener something new on which to fixate.
"buzzz" is a track which quickly reminded me of Nintendo music perhaps more so than any other in Dog Collar's discography, as Dog Collar pairs a fast-paced breakbeat with a steady 808 bassline and empyrean synth chords for a soundscape that feels very "Rainbow Road" to me. The addition of a distant, feminine whisper of a vocal sample feels like the track is trying to communicate a deeper feeling, and gives it a sense of poignancy and depth despite the distance of the vocal chops rendering the specific words mostly unintelligible. I don't know I can describe why it makes me feel the way that it does—but whatever Sunil did really struck a chord with me. As the track continues, we get a retro, analog-flavored synth lead in the right channel, furthering the Nintendo parallels and pushing this track further into the realm of video game music. I'm sure there's some complicated music theory explanation as to why this track resembles video game music, but I can't for the life of me figure out what exactly makes it work! I just know it does, and the resulting vibes are quite simply immaculate. The juxtaposition of bright, energetic synth samples and soothing spoken samples with dingy breakbeats and strange Phrygian-mode progressions creates a really unique cross-section only Sunil can pull off, and it's here that I catch the biggest and most visible shifts away from the heady deep-ocean darkness of Turbo Squid. The emotional contour of this track is ridiculous; it's relaxing and peaceful while also being edgy and breakneck, and I'm not sure I've heard anything like it before. Suffice it to say that "buzzz" made quite an impression on me, and something tells me it's gonna take many more listens before I find the words to sum up the way it makes me feel.
Our journey into the aesthetics of Mario Kart continues with a track titled "titled", which opens with a bending, soft-clipped synth bass over ethereal chime chords, distant, almost-tonal vocal chops, and a hard-hitting, boom bap-esque drum break. The resulting combination sort of feels like a Mario Kart soundtrack produced by A Tribe Called Quest, which is a fascinating combination that has no right to work as well as it does! Phife Dawg would be right at home over this beat's jazzy chord voicings and punchy drums; the resulting mental image made me wish Sunil would team up with a rapper and actually make a proper jazz rap album one day (I'm sure RED_E¥E or Thai Thai would be down!). The otherwise sparse drum beat goes double time about a minute in and some fast-paced, rhythmic synth parts get added to diversify the rhythm a little more. The track also brings in some heavy metal sounds in a huge curveball of a beat switch, as Dog Collar combines his trademark fast-paced acoustic drum breakbeats and syncopated synth bass with massive, chunky, distorted, Phrygian electric guitar power chords. I really enjoy the subtle rhythmic variation added by the different melodic synth parts, and the addition of the electric guitar power chords absolutely jacks the energy up to 11 in a moment that I absolutely love. I've spoken at length on this blog about how much I love guitar work outside of rock & metal songs, and Sunil manages to use the electric guitar as a true secret weapon here. It's totally unexpected and it works amazingly well, making this track perhaps one of my favorites on the album. Even by the very-high standards of a typical Dog Collar track, the dynamism and evolution of this track is off the charts, with more beat switches than I can count—but in spite of that, the song never feels disjunct, and every section flows into the next as naturally as can be. As if that wasn't enough, Dog Collar even throws us one more beat switch before the track's end, which serves as a seamless transition into the following track, "watersports".
I'm a huge sucker for seamless transitions between songs, and so "watersports" ingratiated itself to me rather well right from the outset, as it grows and expands out of the progression established during the final minute of the previous track. Dog Collar throws us a number of different samples here, including a descending melodic run played on some sort of woodwind, and a couple different sung vocal samples. These are soon paired with rapid kicks and shuffling hi-hats in a moment of true purist D&B that feels like it would have been right at home on Turbo Squid. The pulse of this track is crazy, and maintains such a fierce clip that it threatens to strain my neck from all the headbanging! As if in response to this, the track's second half brings a gradual tempo slowdown, pulling the vibes from the frenetic D&B of the first half to a significantly more chill '90s house throwback anchored in syncopated synth organ chords, four-on-the-floor kick drums, and regular, offbeat open hats. I really enjoyed this beat switch, and it makes for a really nice response to the track's frenetic opening salvo. As much as I love Sunil's ability to capture absurd levels of energy, the fact that we spend so much time headbanging makes little moments of calm like this one that much more effective. "watersports" lets us sit in this chill space for a little while before gently pulling back and exiting with a fade out.
When I first pulled up this EP and saw the tracklist, I found myself very excited to get to the last track, "jacuzzi", mainly because it's an official collaboration between Dog Collar and Kid Reno! I was super excited to see what the two producers would bring to the table together, and it made for a great opportunity to experience Ecliptic as a whole unit. The piece opens on a single syncopated bass riff; soon, swirling UFO-like sound effects and hollow, swelling pads provide a dark, cybernetic texture that feels like a marriage between the aquatic murkiness of Turbo Squid and Techno for Children & Dogs. I really enjoyed the drum work on this track; the crazy offbeat crispy snare hits, subdivided hi-hats, and splash-like kick create an excellent groove together. The synth work and sound design is also amazing here. I'm guessing Reno had something to do with that; his prowess with synthesizers is truly legendary and the otherworldly, frantic darkness of the synth texture here feels very much like a Kid Reno flavor to me. A huge beat switch hits halfway through the track, as the soundscape becomes utterly swallowed by huge, muffled sub-heavy kicks that take us down into a space that feels significantly more cavernous and claustrophobic, with reflections of the kicks bouncing off the walls and crashing back in on themselves. The soundscape becomes additionally punctuated by synth sounds, but even those gently fade away until all we're left with is a distorted, swirling, boomy texture of reverbed kicks. The track fades away on an oceanic, sweeping synth sound that takes us down and out from Jungle Fairy Tale, ending the EP on a distinctly darker note than the tracks preceding. In spite of everything, though, I found myself not a huge fan of this track, particularly the kick-heavy second half. I loved the first half, and I felt I could have been thoroughly entertained had we spent another couple minutes exploring that soundscape, but the second half felt too bottom-heavy to me. I'm sure the heavy kick and overwhelming reverb are intentional aesthetic choices, but it sounded to me like there was some clipping present, and it makes the second half of "jacuzzi" a bit overstimulating to listen to for me, on both monitors and headphones. Even so, the collision of Reno and Sunil's talents as producers was super cool to witness, and the bit when the drums first enter during the opening seconds of "jacuzzi" itself probably ranks as one of my favorite single moments on the whole project.
If it's not clear already, I really enjoyed Jungle Fairy Tale, and I feel like it's far and away the best way to enjoy the music of Dog Collar. This new EP retains the best aspects of Turbo Squid and distills them down into a tight six tracks that make for an excellent showcase of Dog Collar's unique talents. At the same time, though, it also makes for a wonderful advancement of Dog Collar's aesthetic, and I'm really enjoying this brighter, more ethereal take on his brand of unhinged, headbanging D&B. Sunil is truly at the height of his powers here, and aside from my small mixing nitpicks with "jacuzzi", I really have no major criticisms of the project. Where I felt that Turbo Squid might have spent a bit too much time exploring similar soundscapes, Jungle Fairy Tale consistently threw new and interesting ideas at me for the entirety of its runtime, and I was consistently wowed by the amount of creativity and ingenuity on display here. Where Turbo Squid was the darkness, Jungle Fairy Tale is the sunrise, and I hope that this EP marks the start of a journey onwards and upwards. I can't possibly imagine what a Dog Collar project that's even better than this one would sound like, but I await its arrival very eagerly, and I just hope that we won't have to wait for long!
Personal enjoyment score: 9 out of 10
Standout tracks: All six tracks are excellent, but if I had to pick favorites, they would probably be "buzzz" and "titled".
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