REVIEWSZomby, ‘Dedication’

8

• SPIN Rating:8 of 10

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Release Date: July 12, 2011
Label: 4AD

Compared to Zomby'searly 8-bit maniaand the rave-and-jungle send-ups of 2008'sWhere Were U in '92?,Dedication is somber, head-down music:The misfit has grownsad and left the scene.The album plays out in interconnected songlets whose logic is more daydream than dance floor, haunted by minor-key arpeggios that linger like acid trails. Its grace is in its consistency, never asking too much or staying too long. When an air horn finally goes off -- on the Panda Bear collaboration "Things Fall Apart" -- Zomby's achievement is clearest: It's not easy to make an air horn sound mournful.