Dumbo Tracks returns with a second album Move With Intention - the anticipated follow up to 2022’s eponymous debut. Philipp Janzen and collaborators deliver a varied collection of nine zoned-out grooves direct from Dumbo Studio in Cologne, with vocal contributions from Portable, Ada, Marker Starling, Rubee Fegan and nothhingspecial.
Looking back to his musical upbringing, Philipp Janzen switched up the recording process from the first record to incorporate more of a live band element. The result is a more eclectic sound which allowed more freedom to experiment, while keeping the collaborative spirit that is a vital Dumbo Tracks trademark.
The genesis of the record began in Italy, where Philipp and co-producer Julian Stetter traveled to jam out ideas on modular synths over the course of a few days. These ideas served as the basis for more instrumental tracks back at Dumbo Studio, where Philipp invited friends to develop the tracks further within a live dynamic. For the final phase of the record, Philipp enlisted the artistry of five vocalists: spoken word frontwoman Rubee Fegan, Canadian singer songwriter Marker Starling, house romantic Portable, Bonn-based haunted pop artist nothhingspecial and Hamburg’s techno visionary Ada.
Rubee Fegan contributes her anecdotal observations to four songs, not least on the opening track “Daughter Of Flood” with her poetic remark “sip on the wave of her.” It’s a vocal style that Philipp had been looking for for ages, and finally found after hearing Rubee’s band Smile. Long-time collaborator Christopher Cummings aka Marker Starling lends his lilting tenor to “Slow Despair”, an uplifting drum machine and organ workout. Track three “What If” shifts the goal posts, as an acid bassline rises over a swung groove that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Manchester warehouse, before we emerge into a clearing of heartbreak and expectation, courtesy of singer producer nothhingspecial.
The title track sees Philipp and crew slow the tempo down to a molasses dreamscape, a beatdown groove that’s joined by Paris-residing artist Portable. Portable’s emotive voice is the perfect foil for the tracks’ invocation to mindfulness, aided by filtered hi-hats and widescreen sequencers. “Mica” takes the synths and drum machines out to the countryside, and finds producer and singer Ada supplying the most sensitive of vocals and flutes to a song that carries the kosmisch torch. Organs spill over rolling drums and dub reverb, underneath Rubee’s cosmic voiceover on “A Naked Star”, and the album concludes with “My Eyes Won’t Close” a chromatic modular descent into despair, vividly described by nothhingspecial.
It all makes for a gloriously eclectic album, an anarchic pop record that follows its own rules. Move With Intention is both electronic yet alive, motorik and pastoral, filled with dancefloor grooves and a krautrock swagger. In this sense the intention is clear: to respectfully rip up the rule book and keep moving forward.
