Author Rene Wynands

Good Dub-Albums often cross my path. But Dub-Albums that really inspire me are rather rare. Hey-O-Hansen's "Sun and Moon" (Pingipung / Rough Trade) is such an album. The cover made me think of weird noise jokes à la Einstürzende Neubauten, but when the CD finally played in the background during breakfast, my girlfriend and I exchanged a puzzled look, put the newspaper aside and turned up the volume. What crazy music! 100% reggae, but played in a way that has never been heard before. The sound is reminiscent of Peter Presto (review in Riddim August 2006), i.e. of melodic compact electronics. Unlike Presto's sound, they are Dubs from Hey-O-Hansen but strangely tricky and yet very simple. It's like playing reggae on the wrong instruments - but really virtuoso. Individual sequences of sounds seem disharmonious and misplaced, only to be wonderfully closed and catchy in the interplay. This is how it ends z. B. a weird accordion that plays over a warm, pulsating offbeat, in a gently breathed chanson, while detailed lo-fi gimmicks take over the direction afterwards. In another song we hear a heavy, sluggish Lee Perry Black Ark sample accompanied by a harp that eventually gives way to a female voice, only to make way for the accordion again. Each piece is an excursion into a fascinating sound landscape, in which a surprise awaits behind every hill and every tree. The liner notes quite aptly speak of “artistic rebellion”. Instead of obeying the genre conventions, a radical break is made with them and with it the door to a completely new one Dub-Experience. Helmut Erler and Michael Wolf are the names of the two creative minds behind Hey-O-Hansen, come from Austria, where - according to their own statement - they were inspired by the offbeat of Tyrolean folk music, played in a rock steady band in the 1980s and in the middle of the Emigrated to Berlin in the 1990s. There they have been tinkering their sound escapades in their own studio for 14 years, which they bring to the audience in a wide variety of places in a wide variety of formats. What has been created in this way in the years since 1995 is now being published on a CD for the first time, carefully compiled and sorted. And this CD - I'm already sure of that - will be in mine Dub-Charts ranked number one in 2009.

Neil Perch, mastermind of Zion Train, likes to point out that his album "Live As One" won the 2008 Reggae Grammy. On closer inspection, the “Reggae Grammy” that Mr. Zion Train is so proud of actually turns out to be a “Reggae Academy Award”, which is presented in Kingston and has nothing to do with the US Grammy Awards. Still - probably euphoric by the success - Neil Perch has Dub- Actors from all over the world asked for remixes of the tracks on the album, which are now collected on one CD as Zion Train, "Live As One Remixed" (Universal Egg) have appeared. The 15th Dubs come from Italy, the Netherlands, Brazil, France, Croatia, Greece, Poland, Mexico and of course from England (but not a single mix from Germany!). The most famous names are Rob Smith, Vibronics, Brain Damage, and Weeding Dub. Some tracks are represented several times ("Boxes And Amps" four times), which allows the mixes to be compared with each other and thus the essence of Dub to trace. However, the remixes stay all too true to the tenor of the original. Only De Niro delivers a massive one Dubstep mix of “What A Situation” from and Dub Terror transforms “Boxes And Amps” into a beautifully nostalgic jungle track.

The album also comes from Universal Egg "Dub Terror "(Universal Egg) from: Dub Terror. I have to admit that the CD has been lying around with me for two or three months - which has a certain expressiveness. I can't think of too much about the album produced in Warsaw. The tracks follow the classic UKDub-Scheme and flirt with occasionally Dubstep - but do not gain new perspectives from this genre. The ingredients are actually right, such as well-chosen samples, a clean sound and six good guest vocalists, but the result is not really exciting. There is simply a lack of good compositions (if you are at Dub wants to talk about it at all).

But back to the subject of “Remix”. In 1982 the punk rocker Ruts CD recorded their album "Rhtyhm Collision" in the then newly founded Ariwa Studio of Mad Professor, which mixed punk rock with reggae and a little funk. The album never received much attention, but became an underground icon that has sold around 100.000 copies to date, including all reprints and re-issues. In 2002, Neil Perch of Zion Train took on the album and produced one Dub-Remix the set. Today, again a few years later, the third generation is at work: deconstructed, reconstructed, coiffed, refurbished and refurbisheddubbt by the bass disciples these days, the album appears under Ruts DC, "Rhythm Collision Re> loaded" (Echo Beach) now one more time. Rob Smith (whom we know from Smith & Mighty and the More Rockers) remixed five of the thirteen tracks, Dreadzone took on two tracks, as did the Cologne-based electronics tinkerers Salz and Steve Dub (the programmer for the Chemical Brothers). All those involved in the big Ruts DC relaunch followed the path that African Headcharge once called the "Path Of Respect" and largely retained the identity of the original. Although we are unmistakably reggaeDub have to do, the sound of punk rock remains omnipresent and the voices of the rods stick out crisp again and again from the sea of ​​bass. An idiosyncratic mix of styles that works perfectly in this form.

Incredible 20 years after the album "Dubvision “sends the Dubvisionist Felix Wolter under the title "Dubvision II "(percussion & electronics) a follow-up album out into the world. Here he has gathered “melodious tracks from friends” who made their recordings with him in the staccato and Time Tools studios. In addition to The Vision and the Herbman Band, these friends also include Gentleman, Tamika & Mamadee and the Far East Band. Maybe it's the age, maybe also the decades of experience. Felix Wolter decided in any case for carefully selected relaxed, melodic and wonderfully classically played tracks and put them into equally "melodious" Dubs transformed, to which you can groove comfortably, but which can also be listened to attentively and then reveal thousands of little gimmicks and nice ideas. So begins z. B. the first piece “Andrés Dub“With a nice, melodic brass section, then after two verses“ into the mix ”, where virtuoso percussions gently play in the foreground, which are then replaced by a nice guitar melody. Everything as a matter of course, logical, consistent. Of course we're not hearing a musical revolution or cutting edge hereDubs in the forefront of Dubstep and electronics. We hear “only” really good craftsmanship, sounds with soul and Dubs with warmth. And it's so incredibly beneficial to just listen to good music and not have to be progressive and open minded. In any case, I would like to expressly wish for more Dub-Works by Felix!

Now something very nice is coming - from the Revival selection: King Tubby & The Clancy Eccles All Stars, “Sound System International Dub LP "(Pressure Sounds). This one produced by Clancy Eccles Dub-Set is so incredibly obscure that no one, "really NO ONE" - as the press release emphasizes - had ever heard of it. When an old vinyl copy turned up in early 2009, the Pressure Sounds geeks went crazy, researched, remastered and rereleased the LP, now in the original cover with previously unseen photos of King Tubby (the CD also contains five bonus tracks). The album documents Eccle's advance into that Dub-Genre, for which he had King Tubby remix ten tracks recorded by Dynamics in the early 1970s. Tubby mixed the recordings sparingly and transparently, stripped them except for drum & bass and almost completely dispensed with vocals. Formerly tubby style at it's best!

That Dub what is now a truly international style is shown once again in the album "Like River To Ocean" (Amaru Music) from the Irish music duo Avatar was recorded and its cover is adorned with Japanese calligraphy. Behind Avatar are the two instrumentalists James Kennedy and Tony O'Flaherty. Both born and raised in the southwest of Ireland, they say they are inspired by the Irish landscape, its beauty and solitude. The clear water, the fresh air and the stoic mountains form a natural harmony in which to sit, contemplate and about Dub lets think. So it's not surprising that ambient sounds like the noise of waves appear again and again in the very relaxed pieces. Above all, it is the soft sounds of the brass that create the Dub of the two Irish. But there are also two pieces that are strange: “Joyfull Dub"Sounds like the drums come from the rhythm repertoire of a Hammond organ and" Kingdom I Dub“- actually a nice piece - is accompanied by praise for Haile Selassie. The connection to the Irish landscape does not want to reveal itself to me here.

Finally we give ourselves a real UK steppers droning - even if the music comes from France: "World Wide Dub"(Control Tower) from The Dub Machinist. There is not much of the Lord Dub-Machinists known - but one thing can be said for sure: he takes his name seriously. His pounding as if moved by a large, steam-powered machine colossus Dubs through space and time and let the floor and walls vibrate. Brutal and minimalist. Nothing, but nothing at all about them Dubt is new or innovative - and there is only one idea: oomph! But the total consistency with which this idea is thought through makes the album an experience. In the style of Heavy Metal, pure “Heavy Dub" speak. You need something like this from time to time to have your eardrum massaged. Ah, that's good!

Greensleeves was inspired by the Darwin year 2009 and is celebrating Charles Darwin's bicentenary with the Evolution Of Dub-Boxsets (Greensleeves / Groove Attack). At the moment contradicting information is circulating about whether four or seven boxes are planned. In any case, the fact is that I have three boxes: Vol. 1 - The Origin Of The Species, Vol. 2 - The Great Leap Forward and Vol. 3: The Descent Of Version. Each of these boxes contains four classic ones Dub-Albums in reprint of the original cover. With this, Greensleeves made it pretty easy, because instead of tracing the evolution on the basis of important pieces - which would have been a huge research and licensing work - they limited themselves to the re-release of a few albums. In a stupid way, however, evolution has to do without epoch-making works by z. B. Lee Perry, Yabby You, Augustus Pablo or Glen Brown get along, which makes the claim made by the title of the series seem quite questionable. Therefore, it makes more sense to present the series as a beautiful, classic collection Dub-To understand albums from the 1970s (maybe later also the 1980s?) And not worry about the evolution theory à la Greensleeves.

Let's take a closer look at these boxes. Vol. 1. begins with a small sensation, namely an ultra-rare work that is also one of the first Dub-Albums in general was: "Dub Serial ". Joe Gibbs published a minimal number of copies in 1972 and sold it for $ 50 apiece (a "normal" album at the time was around $ 4) primarily to sound system DJs. The wealthy listeners got a lot of well-known rhythms like “Satta A Massa Gana”, “Joe-Frazier”, “Money in My Pocket” or “Rainy Night in Georgia”, mixed spartan and with long drum & bass passages. The other three albums in the box were released by the then still young king of Dub, King Tubby, mixed: ""Dub From The Roots ”,“ The Roots Of Dub" and "Dubbing With The Observer ”. "Dub From The Roots ”and“ The Roots Of Dub“Were the first two LPs on which King Tubby was named as an artist. With black and white recordings of Tubby at the mixer prominently placed on the cover, they established the fame of the sound tinkerer. Tubby remixes the typical Bunny Lee-Mid-70ies “Flying Cymbals-Sound” on both albums, so that it is a pleasure. Especially in contrast to the two years older "Dub Serial “shows Tubby's mixing talent in full size. The 4th album, "Dubbing With The Observer ”, was of course penned by Winston“ Niney ”Holness and features some of his classic Dennis Brown rhythms like“ Cassandra ”,“ No More Will I Roam ”and“ I Am The Conqueror ”. Here, too, King Tubby provided pure Dub-Magic. Niney licensed the freshly mixed Dub-Album stante pede to England and sold just two years after the invention of Dub-Albums already considerable numbers. Dub had arrived overseas.

Box No. 2 begins with the album “Bunny Lee & King Tubby Present Tommy McCook And The Aggrovators - Brass Rockers” and presents what later became “Instrudubs "should be mentioned: Dubs with Overdubs. Bunny Lee delivered rhythm tracks like "A Love I Can Feel", "Dance In A Greenwich Farm" or "Dance With Me", which Tubby mixed Dubs from it and Tommy McCook then improvised his saxophone solos over it. This shows once again how unbeatably economical reggae functioned - and what innovations this economy brought about. While “Brass Rockers” was an experiment whose success could not be calculated, the box's second album, “The Aggrovators - Rasta Dub 76 ”, the ever-growing market Dub-Fan fans who stormed the record stores in droves and always wanted to hear the B-side of a Singe before the A-side. Tubby's name on the label sold the records. In this case, however, Tubby's mixing apprentice Phillip Smart drew for the Dubs responsible. While Smart, Prince Jammy and later also Scientist die Dubs mixing, Tubby could devote himself to the more lucrative activities, namely repairing televisions and radios. In the meantime it was Dub-Evolution arrived in 1977 and Bunny Lee (actually the series should better be called "The Evolution of Bunny Lee") rented the Channel One Studio to record "Aggrovators Meets The Revolutionaries At Channel One Studio". A very popular one Dub-Album with powerful rhythms, partly played by Sly Dunbar, in the outstanding sound of the Hookim studio. But the real attraction of the album is the fantastic horn section, which brilliantly garnished all pieces with its jazz improvisations and melody fragments. With the last album in this box, Niney has another chance: “Sledgehammer Dub". In the mid-1970s, each single came out with one Dub-B side. It didn't take long for this principle to be applied to albums, and so Niney released Sledgehammer in 1977 Dub" the Dub-Counterpart to Dennis Brown's "Deep Down" LP. Since Niney only sent around 400 pressings to England, which were also sold in an unprinted cover without a track listing, “Sledgehammer Dub“The most highly traded in auctions Dub-Works. Now the rare work is easily accessible - also a result of evolution.

Let's take a look at the last, third CD box so far. There are well-known ones in it Dub- albums that probably everyone Dub-Freund already has a vinyl LP on the shelf: 1. “The Revolutionaries: Negrea Love Dub", 2." The Revolutionaries: Green Bay Dub", 3." The Revolutionaries: Outlaw Dub", 4." The Revolutionaries: Goldmine Dub". It is obvious that towards the end of the 1970s the Revolutionaries and with them the Channel One studio were the leading authorities in the reggae business. And it's very beneficial that evolution has spawned other producers besides Bunny Lee. For example Linval Thompson, who produced the first three albums in this box and whose vocals keep flashing between the beats. The real star of these albums, however, is Sly Dunbar, who has his "Dubble drum sound ”to perfection. It was the time when the rhythms slowed down and got more "air". Actually, that started with ideal conditions for Dub, but in Jamaica the star of this genre was already falling. Not so in England, where Dub remained unbroken in popularity. It was a premonition of the current state in which Dub is a global but entirely un-Jamaican form of music. The fourth album in the set, “Goldmine Dub“, From 1979, was produced by Jah Lloyd and mixed by Prince Jammy. The mix, the sound and Sly Dunbar's playing are simply superb. The style was Jamaican Dub here at the peak. The then young label Greensleeves licensed “Goldmine Dub“And it was one of the first Greensleeves releases to hit record stores. But that's a different story of development ...

An album that also fits well into the “Evolution Of Dub“Would have been right "Pleasure DubBy Tommy McCook & The Supersonics (Pressure Sounds / Groove Attack), because the Dubs heard here are from the Treasure Isle studio - the place where Dub was invented. Bunny Lee describes the historic moment as follows: “Tubby and I met up at Duke Reid's studio, where sound man Ruddy Redwood and house engineer Byron“ Smithy ”Smith Dub Recorded plates. On one piece, Smithy forgot to turn on the vocal track in time because he was distracted by a conversation with Tubby and me. When he noticed the mistake and wanted to stop the recording, Ruddy only said: "No, make it run". The next day Ruddy played the song in the sound system and then put the "failed" Dub Plate up. People loved it and sang the song along with the mere rhythm track. Ruddy had to put the record on five or ten times. It was a huge success. ”In evolutionary terms, this was the moment that separated animate from dead matter - or the Big Bang of Dub, depending on your point of view. In any case, a moment in the Dub-Evolution cannot be missing, even if it is early on Dub Plates were only about "versions", i.e. unedited rhythm tracks. After the death of Treasure Isle boss Duke Reid, his nephew Errol Brown took control of the mixer and mixed three real ones from the old recordings from the 1960s Dub-Albums: "Treasure Dub Vol. 1 "and" Vol. 2 "and" Pleasure Dub". While the former has been rereleased many times, perhaps the best album of the three, “Pleasure Dub“, Patiently his rediscovery. Now it is available, the sound has been edited and six bonus tracks have been added. Of "Dub“There is not much to be heard on the album, for which one is secretly grateful, because a real one Dub Mixing would mean having to do without the wonderful arrangements of the Rhtyhm tracks, missing the grandiose wind or organ melodies or only hearing fragments of the typical, warm, full-sounding Treasure Isle sound. Fortunately - one can only say - he thought Dub-Big Bang on four-track tapes!

From the beginning of the Dub let's take a giant step into the present, where Noise shaper with the new album "Satellite City" (Cat'n Roof / Groove Attack) describes the current status quo of the genre. And this is already beyond the narrow limits of reggae. But the heart of the Dub - the deep groove, warm sound and melodic bass - still hits in the right place, which is why genres such as soul, deephouse, electronic and reggae come together organically and naturally into a big whole on Satellite City: to Dub 2009! The ten fresh tracks by Axel Hirn and Flo Fleischman sometimes sound like On U-Sound, sometimes like Dubhouse à la Rhythm & Sound, sometimes leftfield and mostly different drummer - and they always have a casual pop appeal, which is not insignificantly brought in by the committed guest vocalists such as Juggla, Jackie Deane or Wayne Martin. I especially love Noiseshaper for their deep shuffle beats, like him z. B. on the song "Sod's Law". Here it is congenially complemented by soft female soul vocals. Dub can be so much. In the course of its evolution it has developed less into a specific musical style in an economic niche than much more into a universal principle that permeates a multitude of musical genres.

This thesis can also be seen very nicely on the new album "Dr. Boondigga & The Big BW "(The Drop / Roughtrade) by Fat Freddy's Drop prove. After the Freddys released their debut album "Based On A True Story" in 2005 with vehemence from far-away New Zealand into the local field of perception Dub Enthusiasts and thus achieved an unprecedented commercial success, now follows the high-expectations successor. But the New Zealanders escaped the almost four-year pressure of expectation simply by doing what for Dub (according to Axel Hirn from Noiseshaper) actually stands: You broke the conventions and consequently now deliver an album that disappoints, surprises, enthuses. They themselves describe their music as "Beat Reduction & Sonic Fine-tuning" and let it change stylistically between blues, electronics, reggae and funk. If it weren't for the latent effect Dub-Principle that holds the very different tracks together, then we would have a very disparate compilation here. But in this way - and especially through the ingenious dramaturgy of the song sequence - a highly interesting, demanding and inspired album is created, which in the end is perhaps a logical further development of "Based On A True Story".

I saw it with the highest expectations DubDocumentary by Bruno Natal. With expectations that were too high, it seems, because instead of portraying the music, its fascinating way of production and performance, the film often did not go through the series of interviews that were too substantial. Perhaps that was the reason for Souljazz's decision to dedicate a CD of the same title to the film - which, however, is not sold in a bundle with the film, but has to be purchased separately. A purchase that is well worth it, given the CD "Dub Echoes "(Soul Jazz / Indigo) in no way contains the “soundtrack” of the documentary, but a completely independent and also extremely competent and tasteful compilation of Dubs from the long history of the genre. The spectrum ranges from Lee Perry productions to King Tubby mixes to Sly & Robbie, Rhythm & Sound to the latest Dubstep-tracks from Kode9 or Harmonic 313. And as the Dynamite compilations show, Souljazz doesn't believe in chronology. Why the C64 sound from Disrupt here seamlessly on the Dub Syndicate with Bim Sherman's coaxing voice bounces only to be followed by one Dubto be swept away by a no less powerful King TubbyDub is contrasted. Orthodox music historians will tip off this mess. Music hedonists, on the other hand, should experience a full intoxication, because the unusual mix of the tracks results in a fascinatingly holistic one Dub-Experience in which the specific peculiarities and at the same time the universality of Dub to be absolutely evident. A sensual insight that can only be provided by the work itself and not through objective documentation. So maybe the film never had a chance to get a grip on its subject. The CD, on the other hand, manages it with dreamlike security. I would like a whole series of compilations based on this pattern. And anyway: It's actually about time for Dub-Compilations - Dubthanks to step!

Where we're from Dubstep talk. The double CD "I love Dubstep "(Rinse / Groove Attack) landed in Germany one year late. Rinse vouches for selected ones based on compilations by Skream and Plastician Dubstep quality. With “I Love Dubstep “, Pirate Radio has now assembled a collection of the best of the last 5 years of the young genre. The 23 tracks on Disc 1 were put together by perhaps the busiest compilation mixer Youngsta and represent the Who Is Who des Dubstep: Skream, Caspa, Loefah, Skream, Benga, Distance and - did I already mention it: Skream. Wobble bass tracks have the upper hand here, nicely technoid and minimalistic. Disc 2, on the other hand, has taken on Geeneus and leads us to the dark side of the Dubstep. Significantly, he starts his collection with Shackleton and ends it with Burial. In between he gathers Digital Mystikz, The Bug, Fat Freddy's Drop (which one would not have expected here) and of course Skream. Who your entry into Dubstep would like to dare is well served with the 45 tracks.

We continue with the second Dubstep CD release of the month: Caspa, "Everybody's Talking - Nobody's Listening" (Sub Soldiers / Rough Trade). Right at the intro my heart was really warm: I hadn't heard the voice of good old David Rodigan, who starts here in praise of Caspa, on the radio for a long time. The 12 tracks that follow have nothing to do with reggae. But all the more so with a large disco rave. Compared to the productions on “I Love Dubstep “are caspas Dubs often mercilessly overproduced, oscillating between techno and pop and not infrequently annoying with excessive grime raps and voiceovers (as fitting with the album title). But there are also more reduced - and therefore all the more powerful - tracks like z. B. “Terminator”, which is completely dominated by a brutally brutal wobble bass, or “I Beat My Robot” - mechanically cold, ruthless and evil.

You want the warm beats of classic reggaeDubs back. And who delivers it to us? Of course our local favorite label Echo Beach again. This time it will be an extraterrestrial one Dub- Artifact Presents: Dubblestandart, Lee Scratch Perry & Ari Up, “Return From Planet Dub"(Collision / Groove Attack). Back from the planet Dub, pack the four Viennese boys from Dubblestandart from what they brought us from there: finds, trophies and the acoustic recordings of two aliens with the names Lee "Scratch" Perry and Ari Up. Okay, Alien # 1 has a deterrent effect, I know! Perry's babbling is in fact hardly bearable. But the Dubblestandarts have pleasantly cut his torrent of speech to a fraction, so that his songs are closer Dubs with sampled vocals. Only with "Fungus Rock" is Perry allowed to make fables about fungal diseases of the vagina - no one had the heart to shorten this wacky text. “Fungus Rock” is interesting for another reason, because this is where the Viennese experiment Dubheads with great virtuosity Dubstep. In general, one has to state that the Dubblestandarts are truly up to date. Every song is full of great ideas, the mix is ​​exciting, the basslines swing and the sound is overwhelming. And so that you can really enjoy this virtuosity, CD 2 of the double album offers all tracks again as Dub-Versions - which sounds like an absurd idea, since every piece on CD 1 already has a Dub is. Anyway, I would love to listen to a third CD with remixes of the remixes. Especially since it is teeming with immortal melodies. There are very, very cool reinterpretations of “Chase The Devil” and “Blackboard Jungle” - why hasn't anyone else come up with this great idea at Lee Perry as a studio guest? My personal favorite, however, is the Jean-Michel Jarre homage "Oxygen pt. 4" with director David Lynch at the microphone. You can only say: Welcome back! We are glad that you are back!

Not from the planet Dub I received the new album from the beautiful northern Italy RB Stylers, “Indubstria "(Alambic Conspiracy / Import). In the best old school manner, it presents 12 tracks as a showcase, one song each followed by his Dub-Mix. Hand-played, powerful rhythms shape the sound, which is somewhere between Zion Train and Draedzone. Particularly noteworthy are the melodious and at the same time powerful songs by singer Michela Grena, which on the one hand form a nice complement to the rhythms, but on the other - as can be heard on the starter song "Let The Shine" - are in perfect harmony with the music. The vowel versions go seamlessly into the Dub-Mix over so that a piece lasts almost 8 minutes. The best thing about the album, however, is that it is - hard to believe - free (and legal) on the BR Stylers homepage (www.brstylers.com) can be downloaded.