DJ 2BE
Versatile Innovations
Paraphernalia Recordings
Street:  04.01
DJ 2BE = Apparat + Ellen Allien + Salmonella Dub

Over the years, I’ve found that artists who incorporate reggae into their sound have some ironically hilarious similarities to certain types of ganja connoisseurs. On one hand, if your music is just some new-wave reggae mash-up hippy gangbang, it resembles that guy that you try to avoid at all costs because he smokes 20 hours a day and goes on about the same ol’ shit he has been for years. Tone the reggae influences down to a reasonable level, though, and you have the potential for some groovy music that doesn’t bore the shit out of the people exposed to it, just like you: the conscious, contemplative pot smoker. DJ 2BE manages to be the latter. The most apparent initial influence in Versatile Innovations is its reggae jams, but the album proves to have so much more substance than that. Solid beats are mixed with familiar samples that range from pop to hip hop. The final result is certainly a refreshing dubstep experience.