This feels like cheating: I found Dumbo Tracks when I was working on the SMILE post from last week, because Rubee True Fegan provides guest vocals on several songs on this album. I thought about including all of this in that post, but the music that Dumbo Tracks releases is so distinct from the work Fegan does with SMILE that they work better as separate features.
ANYWAY: Dumbo Tracks (what a name!) is the alter-ego of German drummer and producer Jan Philipp Janzen, the producer who also worked on the new SMILE song “Hot Friend”. Move with Intention is the second record he’s released under that name: like the self-titled first album from 2022, it’s closer to a compilation, or a family-and-friends record like Random Access Memories than a single-concept albm. Janzen brings together a handful of other artists to push some stylistic boundaries into indie rock (see “Daughter of Flood” above), electro, trip hop and less-defined electronic territory.
The guest performers are a rabbit hole all to themselves. There are a lot of guest performers on this record, I’d heard of none of them besides Fegan, but they all have interesting work. Co-producer Julian Stetter is credited on every track, and guest vocalists include Torontos’ Marker Starling, German performers Ada and nothhingspecial, who each bring a distinct vibe to their feature tracks.
“What If” is one of a few tracks on the record that shift gears pretty strongly at the halfway point, in this case oscillating between a high-energy EDM track and a vocal-first, melancholy downtempo feel:
Album highlight “Mahnung” (German for “Reminder”, I’m told) is a standout: starting with a swirling electric guitar, again shifting at the halfway point to an indie-rock track with Fegan’s murky and enigmatic lyrics again bringing tension and atmosphere over a synth bed and live drumming:
The lasting impression of this record is that of a great mixtape put together by a Rubee Fegan superfan. Her vocal is so perfectly matched to Janzen’s production style that there are sure to be more collaborations. He’s also got another track on a forthcoming compilation from record label Altin Village & Mine, due next month.
