First of all, this album has nothing to do with reggae beats Dub but very much. My recommendation today are Elite beat with her current album from 2019 "Selected Rhythms“(Research Records). Elite Beat is a music collective from Portland, USA, specializing in an intoxicating mix of ethio (pian) jazz, African rhythms, Mali blues, Tuareg guitar music and Black Ark psychedelia. With their powerful melodic bass lines and percussion-driven polyrhythms, they create ecstatic compositions with magical horn passages and exciting juju guitar that stimulate the senses. The focus is very much on tracks recorded live, DubEffects and the use of the recording studio as an additional instrument, which is de facto the Dub-Thought matters. The approach of the musicians is as relaxed as this music, which again doesn't really fit into any category. The musician clique meets once a week to hang out, exchange ideas, make music and let their creativity run free. The tape machine is running, the jam is easy and tidy DubElements mixed in (in real time). Only such cool, relaxed tracks can actually emerge. "Selected Rhythms" now features eight of the best works by Elite Beat. A pleasant change.
Categories
Elite Beat: Selected Rhythms
8 responses to "Elite Beat: Selected Rhythms"
Hi Ras, thanks for keeping back straight dubios music albums that are outside of the "Irie Selassie mainstream". I would never find these albums on my own.
1000 thanks Reiner
Hi Reiner, thank you very much! I am very pleased to read that my “remote Dub-Recommendations "find their addressees.
Stay tuned ...
High Ras Vorbei !
I'm so sorry but I can't do anything with the album yet. I perceive everything you write to be the opposite of what I perceive when listening. Especially with the basslines I can't keep up. I don't find them powerful or melodic. For me very bulky and cerebral (as René might say). The “Irie Selassie
Mainstream Basslines “much to infinitely much better. I fully admit that, because for me they are the origin of my enthusiasm for reggae music and the essence of reggae, the DUB ! Sometimes the music here is as if it were an African Head Charge disc that you forgot to let Adrian Sherwood mix it up properly in the magic drum. Doesn't mean that I don't have any here Dubfind elements. Nope, is dubbig enough but somehow I lack the magic. I already mentioned it before that I got an African Head Charge record that wasn't by Adrian Sherwooddubbed was thrown away. It's just like cooking a soup completely without salt and without any other spices. Even if there are people who might even like it, for me it is unacceptable.
But hey… .. what the heck ……. after all, there are still people who really appreciate this music. I also like to go on trips to others DubAbysses but this excursion is a little too rocky for me and it feels like I'm not wearing any shoes.
Cheers …………………. lemmi
Hi Lemmi, nice to read from you again. You know my motto: "It's all a matter of taste ..."
In addition, we On-U Sound Addicts agree that the form of the day generally decides when it comes to music. There is music that I can hear well today and it will not speak to me tomorrow. African Head Charge (AHC) is a very fitting example. I can still very well remember my first impressions of “My Life in a Hole in the Ground”. When I ceremoniously put the album on the turntable in 1981, lowered the playback arm and then heard these sounds that I hadn't heard before. Honestly, I didn't know what was happening to me. Was that an absolute mistake? In any case, it wasn't the expected On-U-Reggae à la Creation Rebel. At first, completely frustrated, I buried this damn disk sooooo deep in a pile of records. A few days later I dared to go back to AHC and hear and be amazed, suddenly there was a small entrance. It took weeks for AHC to fully tap into it. Today I know every note and “My Life in a Hole in the Ground” is still a highlight in my collection.
High Ras Vorbei !
I can only agree with you on all points. My daily form couldn't be good on Monday, because it was the first day after my little vacation. Nevertheless, your example with "My life in a hole ... .." shows how extreme things can be at times. I would definitely call myself an AHC fan, but they are really mixed, as we have already noticed. In “My Life ……” I really only liked and still like “Elastic Dance”. I like that for reasons that are certainly inexplicable for many, but unearthly good. I was confirmed as a DJ this one Dub-Tune times in the opening act for a Macka B / Mad Professor concert. He would have someone else too Dub from the disc but he played exactly that. In some things there is no need for a discussion ;-)
It may be that I'm completely wrong here again, but I guess the AHC has a decisive advantage over it
Have Elite Beat. AHC are Africans! Or are still firmly rooted in Africa. Rhythmically, they simply have it best worldwide. I don't know why, as a German Piefke, I am so into these remote rhythms, but I get downright high from African children's choirs. There is always the right MUSIC in there. You write about African rhythms, Ethiopian jazz and polyrhythms, but maybe the musicians should meet more often than once a week so that the music sounds more compact and well-rehearsed. I haven't researched anything here and write completely from the gut, so that you can practically shoot at my empty goal and me as an unsuspecting tasteless man
Make idiots stand there. That wouldn't be a problem for me, because every now and then I need someone to bring me back down to earth.
I always thought that I would Dub-Jazz can also do really well. Prince Fatty with Nostalgia 77, for example, is great.
But I think I'm not quite as open to jazz as you and René, for example ……… ..
Even if I sometimes think that it is with certain Dubs cannot have different tastes because they are simply unbelievably good, so of course I would like to agree with your motto ………………….
"It's all a matter of taste" ………………………. lemmi
"... maybe the musicians should meet more often than once a week so that the music sounds more compact and well-rehearsed."
Hi Lemmi, Elite Beat doesn't seem to be that bad. Otherwise they would not have played for three days in 2017 with Mdou Moctar, the “Hendrix” of the Sahel blues. (https://elitebeat.bandcamp.com/album/mdou-moctar-meets-elite-beat-in-a-budget-dancehall) Here too, Elite Beat could easily keep up in terms of rhythm (imho).
Ok, I admit I'm biased. This Tuareg or Sahel sound has blown me away since I saw a band from Mali or Niger in the walls of Essaouira (Morocco) in the late 70s. Trance-like, mind blowing! There are moments in life when you hear previously unknown music and it grabs you immediately ... or vice versa
Warning: this music has something else in common with me Dub Blog is presented to do nothing!
High Ras
I really hope you're not in the mood like me. I would be at least a little "angry" with you if you had launched such a sentence as I "play together more often" and so on. That sounds a little exaggerated by me and I can only say that it slipped out of my mind, although when writing you actually have enough time to weigh your words. Somehow I tried to put my musical impression into words, but I don't always succeed.
I followed your link and I have to say that I really like "We and We In Azawad". The dancehall riddim also goes well with me, but the instrumentation especially on “In A Budget Dancehall” is more for snakes ;-). Sorry if he seems a bit arrogant again, but that's the best way to get my feeling back when listening. Some instruments come in frequencies that just hurt me.
Partly the part in this music that doesn't bother me reminds me of Glitterbeat in Dub. And I think this album is extra class. Although it is a bit annoying here and there.
Ok, I don't want to exhaust your self-consciousness any further. I can well understand that this music has grabbed you. It was similar to me when I heard and saw Youssou N'Dour for the first time live on the Loreley. The sound and the groove and especially the instruments made me buy everything I could get from him after the concert. Unfortunately, his voice is only something for snakes in the long run. Oops, now someone slipped out again.
Until ………………… lemmi
That's a tip! I would not have found it in my sources. I like it exceptionally well. The tracks have good grooves. Unlike Lemmi, I don't miss the reggae beat a bit.