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Review

Satori vs. Dr. Echo: Dub Defender sessions

Satori, a Japanese Buddhist term for knowledge, awakening and understanding, is derived from the Japanese verb satoru. The main motive of Zen Buddhism is the knowledge of the universal nature of existence. It can only be understood through personal experience.
Aha, so that's one way. We are approaching this realization more on the musical track, because it was a few days ago Satori vs. Dr. Echo: "Dub Defender sessions“(Anicca Records) out. Satori is the alter ego of Steven Jess Borth II and Dr. Echo by Justin De Hart. The two Californians from Sacramento, Borth and De Hart, have known each other for a number of years and have worked together for a long time. Satori currently lives in Denmark and as a saxophonist belongs to the direct environment of the Guiding Star Orchestra or works on some projects with the jazz duo Bremer & McCoy, while the sound engineer Dr. Echo has now set up shop in New Zealand. Despite the spatial distance, the two protagonists finally succeeded in sharing the fruits of their collaboration between 2007 and 2009 in the form of “Dub Defender Sessions ”. The collection contains recordings that have never seen the light of day. About half of the tracks have vocals and - despite the sweetish voice reminiscent of Ali Campbell (UB40) - spread a somewhat dark mood. Nevertheless, the interacts dubgood music excellent with the lyrics. The rest of the album are very nice, chill-dubbig instrumentals. We don't actually get anything spectacular here, but the high quality of the album lies in the Dubs that Dr. Echo and Satori produced together. Dr. Echo uses its decades of mixing experience and draws on the possibilities of technology. In doing so, he overloads them Dubs not with a flood of effects, but creates in his Dubs space for quiet and ambient sounds. "Dub to Nowhere ”is, in my opinion, an excellent example of this. Another highlight and at the same time the final point of the album is with its Rasta drumming and its relaxed atmosphere "Dub Decision ".

Conclusion: If you give the album time, it inspires with its soulfully played roots reggae, buttery soft keyboard and saxophone passages and its partly rooted in the ambient Dubs. A very beautiful, unobtrusive work that unfairly gathered dust on some shelves for many years.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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Review

LD Dub: Mystic Roots

The Svaha Sound label, based in London, released their first and so far only album in 2014 LD Dub: "Mystic Roots" (svahasound.com) released. Lots of information about LD Dub none of the search engines could provide me. All I have learned is that LD Dub Founded in 2012 by Ludovic Daquin from Bayonne, a city in the French Basque Country. After the drummer Daquin experienced several disappointments as a band member, he decided to make his own "sound". I can already tell you that for us Dubheads was in any case a very good decision, because it created a sound cosmos that is very much different from the classic rootsDub is influenced. Each of the seven analog tracks from this album has its own character and yet the opus sounds like a unit. LD Dub did an excellent and completely convincing job with the whole mix. Different ingredients are used to build up the tension in the tracks. Sometimes it's a few swaths of melodica floating by, sometimes it's Far Eastern influences such as sitar sounds. In addition, all were Dubs refined with a lot of reverb, echo and beautiful sound effects. Ludovic Daquin opens all the doors to acoustic perception and draws abundantly from the possibilities that a good mixing console offers today. In places you have the feeling that the sound is coming from all four directions. Even if the last two titles go a little more in the "French Steppers" direction, all friends of the well-groomed should Dub be sure to listen to this album.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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Review

The Ullulators: Dub Royale - Chapter Two

Almost two months ago I did here at The Ullulators: Dub Royale - Chapter One presented. Now lay The Ullulators "Dub Royale - Chapter Two“(The Ullulators self-released) after.
This time it's a selection of just ten titles, some of which have already been modified Dub Royale - Chapter One were represented. So are: Random Particle Dub (Run With The Lion); Mighty steppers Dub (Precious Aythyr); Creation Airwaves Dub; Moonlight Ninja 2 Dub to be rediscovered as alternate versions on Chapter Two. Gavin Griffiths put some energy into the project and recorded the tracks again with different basslines, additional musical style elements, a lot of reverb in the classic style, delays, equalizers, filters and re-amped switching technology. The Ullulators' mastermind has not changed the concept in general. Like its predecessor, the album contains funky, groovy old-schoolDubs that reflect the true spirit of the early '70s and' 80s -Dub reflect. According to Mr. Griffiths, the tracks on Chapter Two are much more "stript to the bone" and less groove-oriented than on Chapter One. In fact, this is clearly noticeable in a direct audio comparison of the two albums. On this album, Gavin Griffiths also did the engineering, mixing, Dubbing and mastering accomplished in personal union. For all die-hard Ullulators fans, the band has a few more Dubs in store that will hopefully be published soon. It would definitely be a wish!
Dub Royale - Chapter Two is available as a download for just £ 1. 100% of the proceeds go to the Trussel Trust in order to actively help the homeless, who are extremely at risk from the Corona crisis, in a variety of ways (food, clothes, accommodation). If that's not a reason!

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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Review

Cale WilcoxOne Catch Dub

A few weeks ago I went to another nice collection of Dubs encountered. Cale Wilcox, the bass player and sound engineer of the Georgetown Orbits from Seattle (USA), piqued my interest. In the spring of 2018, he teamed up with a handful of musician friends for a new solo project and "One catch Dub“That has just been released. The mood of the studio sessions in PUSH / PULL or the Aloha Labs was audibly really good, because the result was beautifully relaxed, "rootsy" Dubsee Brian Mueller's contributions to the trombone alone, in my opinion, are worth listening to these seven songs once. But that's not all, Orion Anderson (Georgetown Orbits) also plays some very nice guitar licks on “Lucky Seven” and “Noon Riser”. All in all, the tracks are multi-layered, with some interesting elements, be it the well and sparingly placed melodica or the soulful trombone solos, which I particularly like.
The new work by Cale Wilcox, who also contributed guitar, melodica, keyboards, percussions and mixing to these recordings, is a Dub-Album to drop or just (just) Dub-Music for a relaxed evening after work.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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Review

Hazer Baba: Solveigh

Hazer Baba ??? Isn't that the Turkish company that has been producing Turkish delight since 1888, which is touted as a specialty to tourists on almost every corner of the bazaar? No not really…

Hazer Baba is a still unknown five-piece band from Glarus (CH) who have been making music since 2012 that is extremely difficult to describe and certainly not for everyone Dubwill convince blog readers. On the 2017 album "Solveigh“(Casabrunarecats.com) Hazer Baba shows a multifaceted, virtuoso interplay with exciting arrangements and danceable rhythms. Mal is their music dubbig, sometimes psychedelic, sometimes dreamy, sometimes guitar-heavy and rocky and then again pretty close to classic roots reggae. Marcel (Masi) Stalder from DUB SPENCER & TRANCE HILL characterizes Hazer Baba's music as “an independent mixture of Pink Floyd and Dub". Instead of Pink Floyd, which Masi is 100% right about, I can think of some more up-to-date bands, like z. B. Archives but also Dreadzone. Nevertheless, the style of Hazer Baba cannot really be grasped. Especially when you think you finally know what the band actually sounds like, they make a clever detour and everything is back to normal. But that's exactly what makes the album so appealing to me. In my opinion, the only small weak point is the singing. By the way, Hazer Baba's current album "Terra" should be released in the next few days.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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Review

Frente Cumbiero: Meets Mad Professor

Here we have an original one again, albeit not a brand new one Dub-Album (2010), but at least a work without any reggae rhythms. If a Dub- Primeval rock like our esteemed Mad Professor shows no fear of contact and pushes the boundaries of our small sub-genre mightily, it does not suit us reviewers at all, with oeuvres such as "Frente Cumbiero Meets Mad Professor“(Vampi Soul) wrinkled your nose in disgust. On the contrary, we should be glad that Dub-Genre and his protagonists once again move against the current and not again on the well-trodden path.
Such a godsend is Frente Cumbiero Meets Mad Professor. A project that made the collaboration with Mad Professor possible thanks to financial support from the British Council. The Colombian band Frente Cumbiero from Bogota has been successfully mixing traditional cumbia rhythms with more contemporary music trends for a number of years, creating an unusual end product. At the Javeriana Universidad of Bogota there was a productive meeting between the four-piece band and some local musicians with Mad Professor. After three work-intensive days, the recordings were in the can. In addition to original Colombian compositions, three (track 2; 3; 7) collective improvisations were created during the sessions. Mad Professor then took the seven original pieces back to Ariwa Studio in London and created the matching ones Dubs without any reggae riddims.
The characteristic tempo of Colombian dance, which the creative head of the group, Mario Galeano and his colleagues innervate in the first seven tracks of the album, finds a pleasant counterpart in the professorial mixes. Here we get a pretty rare, fast, polyrhythmic, dubBige melange offered. Mad Professor succeeds like a dream, the Latin American rhythms Dub to merge. For Dubheads - not Dub/ Reggae purists - the second half of the album is of particular interest, but it has it all.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
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Review

Evening News: In Dub (EP)

The evening news is universal, sometimes sensational, yes, even essential for most people. So too Evening news, an exciting Ska-Rocksteady-Roots-Reggae-Band from the south of the Netherlands. The band has been around since 2013 with an extremely strong rhythm section, a really fat old-school horn section and lead singer Rick Blansjaar, who is completely dedicated to the Jamaican old-school music. The eight members of the Evening News only come from Dutch municipalities such as Zoetermeer, Leiden, Katwijk, Nieuwkoop, Beverwijk and The Hague. But if you make music and really step on the gas, you travel back over half a century to the suburbs of Kingston like in a time machine. When the band had finished their first demo recordings in 2014, they turned to the company in Leiden (NL) Dub-Engineer Tony Dubs. He in turn saw it as a very interesting challenge, made of the purest ska riddims,Evening News: In Dub“ (dubbhism.org) to mix. Tony Dubshot went to work, activated his old analog equipment and started that Dubbing. The attentive listener and connoisseur will notice that the extremely accelerating tune “After The Dub"Originally comes from the Skatalites LP" Return Of The Big Guns "and reads" After The Rain ". In my opinion, the exciting experiment was worth trying and, fortunately, the conclusive end result is the Dubbhism netlabel is still available as a free download. The only downer with the EP is: The Evening News is history again after a good 18 minutes. If it were up to me, the album should be much longer. This is uplifting Dub!

Rating: 4 out of 5.
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Review

De Soto: Silverado Days

Many will scratch their heads and notice: "de Soto says nothing to me so far ”. The Senior Allstars, on the other hand, should all readers of the Dubblog be relatively well known. Markus Dassmann (bass, guitar, keyboard / organ, melodica, percussion), the Spiritus Rector of the Senior Allstars and Martin Musch (drums) have already teamed up some time ago under the label Ancient Mountain Records and released some interesting things. With "Silverado Days“(De Soto / Echo Beach Lifefidelity) Markus Dassmann is now releasing his first solo album with the help of Martin Musch. Then we get the music that Markus has been playing with the Senior Allstars for many years: Instrumentals with classic Jamaican sounds, rock steady and occasional - unfortunately quite sparingly set here - DubElements. What might bother some is the relatively frequent use of the melodica, which sounds a bit too uniform in places. Perhaps Mr. Dassmann could think about whether the use of an accordion or bandoneon would be an attractive alternative. The eleven songs, all of which are original compositions by the musical master and composer Dassmann, develop on the basis of beautiful, catchy riddims. Somehow the whole thing sounds like an album that could have been released in the 1970s - but with a much richer sound. The tracks are recorded analogue, have a pleasant, warm sound and come naturally. “Silverado Days” is another album with really decelerated tunes that sneak comfortably unobtrusively into the ear canals. Quality always wins.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
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Review

Tara Putra: Obvious Dubious

Hey, I ran into another project in the endless expanse of the WWW or, better still, heard about it, which is exactly my collar size and has been running in an endless loop for days. If a work already has the appropriate title "Obvious Dubious“(Self Released), I literally prick up my ears. "Obvious Dubious ”from Tara Putra is the dubwise continuation of the albums “In Dubland ”(2012) and“ Driven by Dub"(2015). Marcus Straczkowski from Nuremberg, the mastermind behind the pseudonym Tara Putra (Hindi: Tara = star; Putra = son), has been on the road in Trip Hop, Drum & Bass, Ambient and psychedelic trance since the early 90s. After working hard for almost a year, he presented his new one at the end of 2019 "proud and happy" Dub-Album. The first track "Cowboys Smoking Giants" begins with a thunderous echo and the announcement: "Close the doors, let's go" and it starts Dub-Train to truly intoxicating regions. Again, a lot of musical borrowings can be heard here. From mariachi trumpets, sitar sounds, Spanish folklore, buttery guitar solos, meandering synth soundscapes to psychedelic music, everything is dreamlike with the Dub-Structure interwoven. With its warm, repetitive Dub-Style is "Obvious Dubious “at the moment (Corona crisis) is exactly the right thing to let yourself go. The organic sound structures, benthic basslines and the "slowed down riddims" with beautiful, sometimes unusual Dub- Effects that have really not been saved invite you to take this mind-expanding journey. The last track “Shutdown Sequence” reminds me a lot of the good times of Massiv Attack. He brings us with a guttural chant sequence Dub-Train back into this here and now and leisurely roll out. Music for headphones!

of Love Dubblog community, stay at home, above all healthy, prefer to listen better Dub-Mukke and please keep the curve flat for all of us!

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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Review

sumac Dub: Norska

The multi-instrumentalist and classically trained violinist Tom Dorne aka sumac Dub got a new (free) album yesterday "Norwegian“(ODGProd.com) released. The very appealing cover involuntarily reminds me of the Ents from "Lord of the Rings". Last December Sumac Dub nor the EP "Jam Session Vol 1“Released to shorten the wait for the new, fifth album. The passionate world traveler took two years for "Norska". Sumac finds with his music Dub always a way to create interesting acoustic worlds that he explores freely and without limits. He audibly draws most of his inspirations from his many travels through Asia and the Middle East. So far, all of his albums have been peppered with many ethnic and musical influences. Next to it is Sumac Dub but also strongly influenced by the current electronicDub-Scene influenced by France. Art-X supports him in “Le Chant de Sirli” (The Song of the Lark) with soft, Pabloesque melodica passages. But even on “Norska” we occasionally get a more moderate “stepper”. What has an extremely positive impact on all of his works is the use of many exotic instruments that im Dub seldom or not used at all. Sumac Dub has again created a mystical oeuvre in which harmony and power are brilliantly in harmony. Tom Dorne aka Sumac Dub moves with his unique Dub- Understanding in a league of its own. The wait was more than worth it.

Rating: 4 out of 5.