A few years ago St. Germain showed how house can be combined with jazz in an extremely elegant way. Patrick Bylebyl and Guillaume Metenier, also from Paris, applied his method of housing to reggae and suddenly created such an immensely soulful variant of houseDub (Not Dub-House!) That their project name is "Seven Dub" deep in memory more open-minded Dub-Enthusiasts anchored. Their tune "Rock it Tonight" was the initial spark, which was followed by two albums. Now lies with "Dub Club Edition: Rock With Me Sessions " (Echo Beach / Indigo) album No. 3 and fits perfectly into the series. Wonderfully grooving tunes, crowned by the warm voices of great vocalists like Angelique (she sang “Rock it Tonight”), Paul St. Hilaire, Zakeya and DJ veteran Lone Ranger. Beat-technically, Bylebyl and Metenier orientate themselves on the narrow border path between house and reggae, but allow themselves sometimes quite extensive excursions on both sides - without, however, the typical for them Dub-Groove, which runs through the whole album like a red thread, to tear. A good example of this technique is the congenial cover version of Gregory's “My Only Lover”: A very open and easily played one-drop rhythm forms the basis here. Soft synth chords, interspersed guitar picks and restrained jazzy piano sounds and, of course, Angelique's enchanting voice lay over them as if in transparent layers and thus create an extremely fascinating, multi-layered sound - at the same time full of dynamism and relaxed serenity. Very very nice. Here are seven Dub in their element. There is no need to squint for a follow-up hit "Rock Me Tonight", as the title track "Rock With Me" tries to be. This only creates latent déjà vu effects that give the impression that Bylebyl and Metenier are treading on the spot. So the supposedly strongest track on the album actually becomes its weakest.
At the beginning of last year Ryan Moore surprised us with a vocal artist album from his for pure Dub-Workouts known house "Twilight Circus". This was followed by an excellent solo album by Michael Rose, to which Moore now - how could it be otherwise - under the title "African Dub"(M Records / Import) the fitting DubAlbum submitted. Yet the problem with the Twilight Circus has always been his Dubs lacked that certain flavor - which is why Moore's decision to choose his Dubs to let the lyrics of great foundation artists flourish was exactly the idea that was still missing for the big hit. Inevitably the opposite way leads, namely singing for them Dub-To delete version again, to the old problem: good hard work, but not really exciting in the result. On top of that, Moores Dubs are so present on Michael Rose's album that the Dub-Album is actually obsolete. Anyone who has heard the songs a few times will be on this one Dub-Album didn't discover much new - except for Manasseh's mix of “No Burial”, which has a nice synthetic sounding computer bass under it.
One more word about "computer bass": If you are into it, you will find the ultimate computer bass tune on the Kankal-Album "Don't stop Dub"(Hammer bass / import). After an exciting intro and the well-known Fuzzy Jones announcement, an unbelievable bassline pops out, which lives up to the label name. In general, Monsieur Kanka has an extremely remarkable one here Dub-Album that's so full of energy that you can almost burn your fingers on it. Here it says: "Four To The Floor" in for Dub maximum permitted speed. Like Kong Kong through the streets of New York, Kanka's drum machine stomps through the beats and lets it rattle and thunder all around. So that the bass has a chance, however, it piles up in a veritable thunderstorm of frequencies that effortlessly vibrates the neighbors from across the street to sleep. So, Dubheads, it's worth doing some import research here - this album is a killer!
Let's see if that Bush Chemists with her new work "Raw Raw Dub"(Roir / Import) can hold back. It starts at the very beginning with “New Beginning”. But what is so promising here turns out to be home-style as usual. neo-Dub, or UK-Dub, in its purest form, no more and no less. The next track “Speaker Rocker” builds up a bit more tempo and one more track, in the Love Grocer remix “East Of Jaro” there is a little melody added. No, they do against Kanka DubVeterans are not a very good figure, but the longer you listen to them, get involved with their music, the more the comparison fades and the album unfolds its qualities - and these consist in the fact that it meets the limited possibilities of neoDub (its rhythm, its arrangements and its instrumentation) somehow still finds mostly interesting tunes.
Let's listen to the original, let's hear how it all began ... 1991 took place Zion Train the debut album "A Passage To Indica" on, a good, unspectacular album that is now together with its successor "Natural Wonders of the World in Dub"(Universal Egg / Import) - a neo-Dub-Milestone - freshly remastered is re-released. Especially “Natural Wonders” is still very worth listening to. The liaison typical of Zion Train between digitalDub and fast acid house rhythms. The album is full of groundbreaking ideas, each track is independent and rhythmic as well as melodious so concise that the Dubs can almost be called “songs”, like z. B. especially on the last track “Zion Canyon” with its gentle catchy piano melody over the inevitably hypnotizing bassline. In retrospect, the album shows itself to be a first manifesto of the new possibilities of the new Dub.
Finally, a historical look at the Jamaican Dub. The American label "Silver Kamel Audio" is dedicated to the oeuvre of Deejay and producers Yeah Thomas. The last releases are the sampler "Big Dance A Keep" and that Dub-pendant "Big Dance a Dub"(Silver Camel / Import). Recorded by the Roots Radics, Mafia and Fluxy as well as the Firehouse Crew at Tuff Gong and Black Scorpio studios, the album offers 14 freshly recorded tracks that sound like they came from the 80s and 90s. The album wouldn't be worth a special mention if it weren't for all the beautiful Studio One riddims that can be heard here in a crisp, pure version. A bow to Nkrumah Thomas' great legacy Studio Ones? Or sheer lack of imagination? Anyway, these riddims are fun and carry any album.