Category: Reggae

At Steppers, opinions always differ significantly. However, I am completely open-minded in this regard and really appreciate good steppers. I love sound system nights when the bass bursts over the heads of the dancers like storm surges. Nights when body and rhythm become one. A Dub not be repetitive enough at all. What might sound boring on the sofa is just right in the sound system. Only a few beat-makers have mastered the art, this repetitive, meditative, magical Dubs that work so perfectly in the sound system. One of them resides - not in the UK, but in Geneva: Radikal Vibration. The name is program. The four beat producers and sound system operators Sabu, Son'Ja, Robert Safety & Flegus deliver the ultimate hardcore beats, which they decorate with illustrious vocal artists, or give it to the very best. Last year they released the Brother Culture album, Code Name, from which the hit “Jump Up Pon It” emerged. They just started with "Abaddown“(Evidence Music) a second album with various vocalists like King Kong, Mark Wonder, Micah Shemaiah, Teacha Dee, Wayne Smith, Senham Smith and others - but also with four massive ones Dubs after. I'm deeply impressed by that (the emphasis is on "heavy"). Above all Dubs roar in my ears that it is a relief. I would say: This year's Heavy Bass Prize is going - at the last minute - to Switzerland!

Dub tends to be rather dark music. Magical, mystical, metaphysical - deep and difficult. But how about the complete antithesis to our favorite sound: happy, lively, optimistic music that goes well with a sunny summer morning in the country? Here it is: Marcel-Philipp: "Morning Sessions Vol. 1" and "Morning Sessions Vol. 2" (Ashera Records). The young multi-instrumentalist from Baden-Wuerttemberg presents us with 24 so incredibly lively instrumentals, spread over two albums, that it is pure joy. Anyone who does not feel the sun rise while listening to the “Morning Sessions” must be an incorrigible misanthropist. Its sound reminds me of those Studio One recordings where Jackie Mittoo touched the keys and the groove just poured out. The organ also plays a leading role with Marcel-Philipp - directly after the melodica, the instrument that is inextricably linked with the name Augustus Pablo. The simplicity and childlike innocence inherent in its sound fit perfectly with the simple and therefore all the more beautiful melodies that Marcel-Philipp elicits from it. The arrangement of the instrumentals' up-tempo beats, which are mostly reminiscent of early reggae, is characterized by its simplicity. Anyone who wants to could consider this naive and under-complex. I, on the other hand, tend to just have fun with this thoroughly optimistic music.

I have to get rid of it: I'm totally flashed by Hollie Cook's new album right now Twice. Such a wacky, cool combination of superb, ultra-tightly produced Ska and Reggae rhythms and Hollie's bright, floating voice - that just makes me happy. And then there are the strings that totally annoyed me with the Trojan productions of the 70s - here they are used congenially. Then there are just great melodies and beautiful, touching lyrics. But the best thing is that Twice designed as a showcase album, so Hollies songs seamlessly into one Dub- Skip version. Great.
That producer Prince Fatty and Hollie Cook are a winning team, they have already proven on Hollie's debut album. On Twice now outdo yourself.

It's tragic. Whenever I get a new one Lee Perry-Album flutters on the table, I feel more duty than pleasure to listen to it. Lee Perry was once THE innovator of reggae. The originator of a fantastically complex, magical and absolutely unique sound, born from the happy encounter between analog studio equipment, gifted musicians, a lot of marijuana and even more rum with a very special genius that resides in Lee Perry's head (still this side of the border to madness) was. Towards the end of the 1970s, genius crossed this line and Perry became the quirky, babbling owl whose monotonous monologues have since been heard on countless albums by third-rate reggae bands. Bands trying to capitalize on Perry's legendary name to this day. What a crash, what a tragic fate. Now a new attempt: Daniel Boyle - a little-known British reggae producer - had been working with the Madman on a new album for around a year. Before that, he had meticulously bought the equipment from Perry's Black Ark studio and experimented with it until he finally succeeded in what no one had ever done before: reproducing the legendary sound from Perry's prime. Now the new work is available, to which Perry not only contributed the (let's call it) vocals, but which he allegedly co-produced: Lee "Scratch" Perry: Back on the Controls. It's a double showcase album with 11 vocal tunes and 11 DubVersions and, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, is also being released as a CD and beautifully illustrated double vinyl edition. Top or flop? No doubt about it: It catapults itself to the rank of probably the best Perry album of the modern age - a rank, however, which it ranks with Adrian Sherwood's "Dub Setter ”album from 2010. Daniel Boyle (who I hadn't seen before) and Perry have created an official masterpiece here by copying the Black Ark sound, but fortunately foregoing (with one exception) re-brewing the old pieces. Instead, the two of them go their own way, present strong, independent rhythms interspersed with warm brass sections, dose Lee Perry's babbling very appropriately, even elicit some good melodies from him and also offer fantastic melodies as a bonus DubVersions. Perry also seems to have recognized that he has something very special in his hands, which is why he decided to revive his honorable upset label to offer the album a worthy home. Welcome back, Mr. Perry.