That Dub survived in Germany, we have only one label to thank: Echo Beach. Founded during the heyday of the UKDub, it has the flag of Dub held high in all these years of drought and hardship and today celebrates its incredible 15th birthday. 1,5 decades of first classDub from Germany and the rest of the world (with groundbreaking and Dub-History-writing albums by Black Star Liner, The Groove Corporation, Manasseh, Seven and others Dub, Dubblestandart, Noiseshaper, Cool Hipnoise and the More Rockers), one could justifiably have expected a best of sampler. But no, Mr. Beverungen from outta Hamburg surprises us with a new edition of his legendary King Size DubSeries - the thirteenth if I counted correctly (Echo Beach / Indigo). And because that is a bad omen, they simply resorted to another number whose symbolic content is far more promising, 69! Our Hanseatic Dub-Ritter (and -Retter) collected 14 exclusive tracks from his favorite label artists and the Mark Viddler-Dubmix of Martha & The Muffins song "Echo Bach" placed programmatically at the beginning. It follows a very spacey one Dub-Cover of the special hit "My Rasist Friend", performed by Deepchild feat. Andy B. High Dub-Mix art! Then a track that you can never go wrong with anywhere: “Peace & Love” by Dubmatix feat. Linval Thompson (from the album "Renegade Rocker" currently released by Echo Beach). Is it about the new school of the old schoolDub, then do DubMatix aka Jesse King is currently not up to anyone. (I'm currently hearing two great new ones Dubmatix singles, which will soon be available at irieites.de - not Echo Beach, but still great). Also big: Junglehammer vs. Daktari, a powerful, fast one Dub. The perfect choice after Dubmatix cracker. It continues with Smoke (from the current album "Addicted"), then (for the umpteenth time - but with the anniversary sampler, let's turn a blind eye) with The Ruts DC. Four grandiose ones follow Dub-Cover: "House Of The Rising Sun" (Animals), "Walking On The Moon" (Police), "Private Life" (Pretenders) and "Jeanny", a really deep one DubVersion of Falco's controversial '80s hit. Form the conclusion Dubblestandart with Lee Perry that Dub Syndicate, Sugar Sugar (from Seven Dub) and Ari Up vs. XA Cute, which is an interesting crossover from Cutty Ranks and Dubstep. In other words: A really good, fat anniversary present that Echo Beach gave us and itself as a present. For the next 15 years!
I live in the very satisfying awareness that at least I know my way around a musical cosmos really well: Dub. But lately I have repeatedly had the - albeit by no means unpleasant - experience that there are still some undiscovered corners and protagonists unknown to me. How z. B. Sideshow, their debut CD "Admit One" (From Music / Alive) recently landed on my desk. The name didn't mean anything to me, and a look at the press information raised the suspicion that this CD might just have been misdirected. We were talking about the singer / songwriter Fink, who has been releasing albums on Ninja Tune since 2003, on which he accompanies himself while singing with the acoustic guitar. So roughly the opposite of Dub. Anyway, I decided to let the music do the talking and put the CD in the player. After all, I didn't hear a man with his guitar, but a real Indian pop song with a female singer (Cortney Tidwell, as it turned out later) - but ultimately not my cup of tea either. I almost stopped the CD when the second track started and a bass line echoed against me that made my guts shake. Wow - what was that? Four to the floor, the beat stamped through space and time, leaving traces of long reverberant echoes. At the same time - and that went perfectly with the unusual introductory song - everything sounded so wonderfully analog and human, had warmth and atmosphere. On the third track, the familiar voice of Paul St. Hilaire rang out, which made it clear where the journey of the remaining seven tracks should go: to one of the most beautiful and exciting Dub-Excursions in the last few months. Fink aka Fin Greenall recorded this album live with his tour band, as it were to relax: “Im Dub For me it's not about rational thinking, but rather about emotional action, about freedom, a certain quality, "says Greenall:"Dub for me is like the church of music, a certain innocence with enormous power. ”Very beautifully poetic - and you believe him at the latest when the plaintive strings sound on“ If Alone ”, in which Weltschmerz spreads over the steadily flowing bass waves only to lead to a highly idiosyncratic version of Kraftwerk's "model". Anyone who does something like this as a relaxation exercise has to be a gifted musician - of which there are a lot in the various musical genres. One can only hope that they put their heart out for them Dub and make sure that many more obscure CDs land on my desk.
The exact opposite of "hand-played" analog music is provided by the label Jahtari, which - as the name suggests - was committed to the 8-bit sound of early computers like Atari and above all the C64 with its (then) outstanding sound chip. Label boss Disrupt now with "The Bass Has Left The Building" (Jahtari / Cargo) his second, "real" album on which he made the connection from Dub and exploring the 80s computer game sounds. He inevitably follows in the footsteps of King Jammy, who in 1985 produced the first fully synthetic reggae sound with Sleng Teng. But while Jammy's Epigonen now work with the most modern software such as Logic and Cubase, Disrupt deliberately limits itself to the minimal sound repertoire of the three-part SID chip that was in the C64 at the time. What can be done with this limited set of instruments? To be honest: not very much - although, on the other hand, more than expected. In the worst case, the pieces sound like the simply knitted soundtracks of silly jump & run games, in the best case Disrupt succeeds in composing more complex shuffle beats that occasionally even come close to rhythm & sound tracks. Ultimately, however, this music cannot be grasped with the usual quality criteria. Dubs made from C64 sounds are an experiment that, regardless of whether it fails or succeeds, broadens our musical horizons - and is therefore justified.
Know real reggae buffs clinton fearon. Even if you didn't expect him in this column, because Fearon is known as a member of the Gladiators and thus as a singer. But now the reggae veteran, who is not only a singer but also a bass player and who has already played in Studio One and the Black Ark studio (and now lives in Seattle (USA)), has a real one DubAlbum recorded. “Washable” means that it's not just that Dubmix of an existing vocal album. No, "Faculty Of Dub"(Boogie Brown / Import or iTunes) is an original, "hand-played" Dub-Album. And a very good one too, with a wonderful old school flair, a classic line-up, gentle, harmonious rhythms and a simple but very pleasant mix. Such music is wonderful to play in the office. It spreads warmth and well-being, has a calming effect but by no means boring. The Faculty Of Dub is quite simply what you call a “solid Dub-Album "is called. And that is exactly what there has been far too little of in recent years. Even beyond musical engagements, Mr. Fearon seems to be active. A Google search for his name unearths a blog called “Boogie Brown and the Baby Notes,” in which Fearon advertises gift ideas (mostly gift baskets). The gift baskets are then available on a Canadian shopping site. Well, since there is hardly any money to be made with music, musicians have to be open to alternative sources of income.
But since we're surfing the net right now, I have one more tip for a really good one Dub- Get rid of podcast: thedubzone.blogsome.com. It is produced by Pete Cogle, who puts a half-hour show up to three times a month on the net. To do this, he only uses downloads that are freely available on the Internet and thus relieves his listeners of the trouble, even music community sites such as reggaedubwise.com to search for good material. In any case, I'm always amazed at the good ones Dubs Mr. Cogle clicks together like that (and above all I am amazed at the good quality of "Hobby" -Dub-Producers in the network).