Breathstep

Amsterdam collective Devon Rexi occupy a strange, feverish space between dub, post-punk, and psychedelic funk, drawing on the loose but intense energy of No Wave, and folding in distorted vocals, turntablism, and elastic rhythms. On the delightfully weird Breathstep, they join forces with London producer John T. Gast, whose dub-rooted production techniques pull their already unruly sound into a deeper, more immersive space.

The album is a mashup of contradictions: physical grooves against anxious textures, playful ideas against moments of genuine unease. Gast’s production magnifies Devon Rexi’s rough edges by going all in with the use of echoes and distortion. The title track captures this tension perfectly. Languid vocals drift through heavy processing, their auto-tuned phrasing recalling the emotional sweep of contemporary raï music, while distorted effects and weighty rhythms pull the track into a darker realm. “Blade” begins with a burst of percussion that recalls the restless energy of DJ Plead’s leftfield club productions. Its rapid-fire drums and Chaabi-inflected rhythmic patterns create a sense of constant motion, but Gast’s murky treatment pushes the track away from straightforward club territory, placing it somewhere more psychedelic and unstable.

“Mashrub” explores a heavier side of the collaboration. Its opening moments evoke the crushing low-end and cavernous dub architecture of The Bug, before drifting into a stranger landscape of grime-informed rhythms, metallic accents, and ghostly vocal fragments. The track feels suspended between soundsystem pressure and a haunted industrial atmospheres. On “Flash Flute,” a melodic flute line introduces an unexpected sense of lightness, its playful warmth floating above colder, more anxious layers of electronics and percussion. That contrast, between warmth and tension, playfulness and unease, runs through the entire record. It’s here that Breathstep finds its character, in the space between the weight of dub, the tension of No Wave, and the physicality of club music all pulled into Gast and Devon Rexi’s evolving, disorienting world.