Captain Yossarian: Fela Kuti in Dub

Dub is the only music genre that is both style and method – and therein lies a possibility that always fascinates me: Dub It can be applied to any style of music without the result sounding like reggae for even a second. If Afrobeat the DubUnder this treatment, Afrobeat remains Afrobeat – but it becomes more spatial, deeper, analytically deconstructed and reassembled at the mixing console. This isn't a stylistic costume thrown onto a song. It's a production principle that intervenes in the music, rebuilding it from within. And that's precisely what Captain Yossarian achieves. Fela Kuti in Dub (Agogo Records) with four classics by the Nigerian grandmaster.
Who exactly is Captain Yossarian? Behind the name – borrowed from Joseph Heller's absurd war novel "Catch-22" – is Manuel da Coll, drummer, producer, and Dub-An enthusiast from Munich. His studio, Katzlbaum, is located in the working-class district of Untergiesing and, as befits its location, is a vibrant crossroads: Krautrock pioneers like Embryo work here, Poets of Rhythm mastermind Jan Weissenfeldt has his headquarters here, Franz Ferdinand's guitarist Nick McCarthy meets here with local brass bands, touring bands play impromptu concerts and sleep on the sofa. Not a sterile production space, but a small microcosm of music history. Live, Coll plays drums for LaBrassBanda, FEH, and Pollyester; he also runs the Dubtrain.one, a self-built, battery-powered mobile sound system. Dub For him, it's not a niche, but a way of life.
Im DubCaptain Yossarian became known to those in certain circles through "Bob Marley in..." Dub“(2021, Echo Beach), which Don Letts presented on BBC 6 Music at the time. “Fela Kuti in Dub“ is the logical next step – with even greater conceptual boldness.
Because what Coll is tackling here is anything but obvious. Fela Kuti's music is the exact opposite of that minimalist structure based on just a few elements, from which classical music derives its foundation. Dub its power derives from this. Kuti's Afrobeat – which he developed in the early seventies together with drummer Tony Allen – is polyphonic, multi-layered, carried by a large band, and rhythmically meticulously interwoven. It is precisely this complexity that makes the experiment so appealing: Can music that is simultaneously organized into dense layers by twenty musicians be analytically dissected, reassembled, and analyzed in the Dub-Space catapulting – without tearing the tissue?
The answer, which “Fela Kuti in Dub“There is a resounding yes. But you have to listen closely to how Coll does it. It would be insufficient to simply add reverb and echo to Kuti's tracks. What Captain Yossarian does is true deconstruction: He tears open the complexity, makes layers disappear and reappear, works with the gaps that arise when a brass section suddenly drops out of the mix.”dubThe concept is based on the Jamaican disco mix – the format that begins a song as an instrumental and then develops it into a full-length version. Dub-Version transferred.
This works so well also because Afrobeat and Dub They are not such dissimilar siblings as they initially appear. The repetitive, pattern-based structure of Kuti's music is a precursor to modern production techniques like techno and house – precisely that hypnotic, cyclical quality shared by both styles is what defines "Fela Kuti in Dub“its internal coherence.”
This becomes particularly clear in the specific sonic choices Captain Yossarian made for the four Kuti classics. On "Water No Get Enemy," thunderous spring reverb units and percussion imitate torrential rain—the song title becomes a sonic sculpture. "Zombie" features marching soldiers and shotgun-like bursts of sound: Kuti's political message remains audible even where no words are sung. "Expensive Shit" includes a cash register, a clever dramatic device that carries on the satirical content of the original without lyrics. And "Everything Scatter" sends out sounds played live on a Korg MS10. Dub-Sirens through the mix. This attention to detail makes it clear: Here, someone isn't just using effects, but is thinking about music.
The fact that only analog instruments, sounds, and effects were used is immediately apparent on the album, without needing to be explained. Mix and live-DubCaptain Yossarian and engineer Seb-I (Sebastian Kellig) took over at Sausage Studios in London: everything in real time, faders and effects at their fingertips. That is Dub in its purest form.
The lineup that da Coll assembled for the recordings is consistent. Prince Tempopolice – a committed Afrobeat fan who has toured the world with highlife legends like Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas, and most recently with Ghana's Santrofi – plays on "Zombie in Dub“Drums. Jan Weissenfeldt, known from Poets of Rhythm and the Whitefield Brothers, can be heard on “Water No Get Enemy.” And Jimi Tenor, who recorded the album “Inspiration, Information” together with Tony Allen – Fela Kuti’s drummer – delivers on “Expensive Shit in Dub“His saxophone. This is not a randomly assembled lineup, but a biographical consequence.”
One final, almost unparalleled touch in the production story: For the premaster, Captain Yossarian asked Sodi Marciszewer of Zarma Studio in Paris—who has produced, among others, Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti, Seun Kuti, and Damian Marley—to record the mix on the very original Decca mixing console that Fela Kuti had worked on in Lagos. A mixing console as a historical witness, as a physical point of contact between the legacy and its reinvention. This is either very romantic fetishism or very profound respect. I tend to think it's both.
“Fela Kuti in Dub“ is what such encounters can be at their best: not a homage, not a remix, not an adaptation in the trivial sense – but an independent work that distills a third language from two strong musical traditions.