Don't call it a comeback: Dabrye finishes his x/3 trilogy after 17 years

February 17, 2018 10:11 AM

The final installment in Dabrye's trilogy was worth the wait (Doug Coombe, Detroit Metro Times)

Dabrye is musician Tadd Mullinix's hip-hop producer alter ego. His first album One/Three came out in 2001, a unique hybrid of techno influences (Detroit techno, Warp Records, and kindred labels) and the classic hip-hop productions of Pete Rock, DJ Premier, the Bomb Squad, and J Dilla in particular. His second album, Two/Three, came out in 2006 and featured his hero J Dilla and Phat Kat on the single "Game Over," as well as Waajeed, Invincible, MF Doom, and Guilty Simpson. And then... pretty much silence from Dabrye.

That is, until now. Behold: Three/Three, featuring "a dream lineup of both Detroit (Danny Brown, Clear Soul Forces, Nolan The Ninja) and national (MF Doom, Ghostface Killah) MCs."

As noted in Resident Advisor's notice of the then forthcoming album,

While Mullinix has been quiet on the hip hop side of things, the past few years have seen him focusing on his various dance aliases. Mullinix, AKA JTC, launched a label, Bopside, released an album as Charles Manier and continued to collaborate with D'Marc Cantu as 2AM/FM and Todd Osborn as TNT.

Mullinix currently has seven Bopside records to stream and purchase on Bandcamp, representing his "frazzled electronic experiments" and techno explorations that he collected under his new label, starting in 2014, after years with Ghostly International (XLR8R interviews, collection on Bandcamp) and other labels.

posted by filthy light thief (6 comments total)

Astute Ann Arbor heads will notice that Mullinix and Coombe are fellow alums of Encore Records, one of the dustiest and best crate-digger stores around the Midwest. Thanks for reminding me to check out his new stuff! (and make a very fun shuffle out of all the records).
posted by saintjoe at 10:17 AM on February 17, 2018 [3 favorites]

Thanks for the reminder. I just realized I only have the first one.
posted by bongo_x at 2:02 PM on February 17, 2018

bongo_x: me too, I had no idea it was a continuing thing.
posted by rhizome at 2:11 PM on February 17, 2018

The Two/Three instrumentals are crucial, and sitting high on my Discogs wantlist. Thanks for the notice!
posted by spaceburglar at 5:01 PM on February 17, 2018

Instrmntl is also reissued now, available on vinyl and now as a digital download, too.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:04 AM on February 18, 2018

Available for free streaming.
posted by k8t at 5:18 AM on February 19, 2018