The Predicate (Dub Version) is a remix disc loosely tied to Savath y Savalas' 2009 album La Llama. That album was chopped up, according to Stones Throw, by the Predicate Production Guild, a semi-mysterious electronic artist believed to be an alter-ego of Savath head Guillermo Scott Herren (who also goes by Prefuse 73). The Predicate sounds even cloudier and less focused than the already cloudy La Llama, with Herren removing its thin structures and leaving the remains in a worryingly unkempt mound.
The Savath moniker has long been Herren's outlet for exploring Brazilian folk and psych with longtime Savath collaborator Eva Puyuelo Muns (La Llama also featured beatmaker Roberto Carlos Lange), but The Predicate doesn't sound like anything quite so well defined. Where "La Loba" was once a delicate, atmospheric ballad, "La Loba Collection" cuts and obscures the original's vocals and instrumentation, leaving only what can be described as general ambience. Sometimes, Herren takes La Llama's least evolved tracks-- such as the clanky, beatless interlude "Pajaros En Cadaques"-- and turns them into full-fledged compositions. There are two different versions of the already collage-y "Me Voy" (the second, a teary eyed cinematic take, is gorgeous). The long, lumbering "There Is No Love in Your Heart" is a new composition, unless it's not; it can be very difficult to tell.
Unfortunately, none of it sticks. The lack of boundaries-- between sounds, between songs, even between The Predicate and its source material-- doesn't do Savath's electro-folk any favors. Traditional dub edits often emphasize rhythm, but it's unclear what Herren's emphasizing on The Predicate, other than the atmospheric looseness already present on La Llama. Its best moments ("Me Voy Alone", "Abri.L Closed") sound like a textured, electronic takes on the Savath sound, incorporating some of the dilapidated breakbeats and implied sexuality of Herren's Prefuse 73 work. But La Llama had already begun to incorporate some of this noisy ephemera, and so The Predicate meanders, prettily, without ever gaining a foothold.
