Bristol, the English city on the River Avon, created a musical universe by 1991 at the latest with the trip hop artists Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead. But the city's musical history goes back much further. The Equals with Eddy Grant formed here in the mid 1960's. Reggae bands Talisman, Black Roots and The Pop Group with Mark Stewart followed in the mid/late 1970s. Gary Clail, associated with On .U Sound, also came into the limelight in 1991, coming from Bristol. These are just a handful of examples, I could go on and on with the list of Bristol musicians if this wasn't the main issue here Dub Cuts from Eeyun & The Co-Operators: Vibrations from the Bionic Tabernacle (Woodland Records).
Eeyun & The Co-Operators were formed in Manchester but later relocated to Bristol. At the heart of the whole project is producer, sound engineer, songwriter and instrumentalist Eeyun Purkins and his Waggle Dance Studios. In April 2019, the Co-Operators & Friends released the album, "Rhythms From The Kitchen Sink”, which in November 2020 “Beating The Doldrums" followed. It was not until a year later that the quintessence of the since then unpublished Dubs see the light of day from the first two LPs. Eeyun Purkins mixed those Dubs previously existed as Rhythms from the Kitchen Sink and Beating the Doldrums, but the mixes have remained unreleased. The tracks didn't even make it onto a single after the mixdown. Now they are available as a "Name your Price" download. The DubTracks were all renamed: "Murder at Midnight" ft. Joe Yorke (Kitchen Sink) became "On Humanby Corner", "The Thief & the Liar" (Doldrums) became "Higher & Higher".
The strong influence of classic reggaeDub-Albums from the 1970s on Eeyun's work as a musician and producer is all Dubs to be heard clearly. Eeyun Purkins found it best to keep the tuning and sound as close as possible to the original vocal mixes and also use the original versions. The successful end result proves him completely right.
I still have to mention one artist: It's the songwriter Perkie (making punks cry since 2006) with her wonderful voice, who obviously must have fascinated Eeyun Purkins as well, because Not Forgotten Dub aka Crazy Woman ft. Perkie from Kitchen Sink is the only track on the entire album that occasionally has song fragments floating through it. Pure goosebumps for me.
And now have fun discovering and decoding the tracks. Quick tip: Vibrations from the Bionic Tabernacle starts with a Dub from the "Doldrums" album followed by one Dub from the "Kitchen Sink" album and always alternately so on.
2 Responses to “Eeyun & The Co-Operators: Vibrations from the Bionic Tabernacle”
Thank you Ras Vorbei... nice that thanks to you this beautiful work does not pass us by ... well, the co-operators with Eeyun Purkins are at the top of my list of all-time favorite reggae and Dub-Tracks Producers. I not only like the sound very much, but also the individual instruments and arrangements are very sophisticated and often played with a high recognition value... The two compilations you mentioned have been with me since their release and thanks to them I discovered and appreciate Joe Yorke, for example learned to love. "Tonight" (Kitchen Sink, 2021), for example, was my Joe Yorke opening track and Gentrification (Doldrums, 2020) is in no way inferior to it... unfortunately both are not listed heredubbt, but for nerds as single versions with Dub available (also on LP) and frankly appreciated! I still can't believe Joe Yorke didn't produce and release his solo album 'Noise & Emptiness' with Eeyun on Waggle Dance Records... but that would have been out of this world and Joe felt like experimenting a bit... not from bad parents either, but...
After all, "Turnpike Town" is retitled as "Green Lane Collie" on it... once again regretting that so few songs were recorded while listening throughdubbt resp. here as Dub were published ...
I take it you didn't give half a sixth star because it's a shame not every song on the two albums got a Dub (is sort of "the best of the rest" if you count the Joe Yorke high-flyers)...at least that would be my only argument for deducting the maximum.
Hey Philip,
"Vibrations from the Bionic Tabernacle" can already be found in my charts for 2022 at number four. The comment on the album reads: "It was about time. Finally some fantastic ones Dubs to the wonderful Bristol vocals.”
I gather from your comment that the two of us tick pretty much the same way here.
Oh yes, the tiresome star rating under the reviews. For a long time I wrestled with myself whether I should give 4 or 5 stars. In the end it was 4,5 stars because I still secretly hope that Eeyun Purkins will add the remaining tracks from the two compilations. At least then I'll still have a little room for improvement.