Soul Revivers: Grove Dub

A new name with well-known protagonists from the sound systemDub-Around the west London neighborhoods of Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill. This is where the cover photo was taken in the late 70s, this is where Nick Manasseh has his studio The Yard, where he founded the Soul Revivers with David Hill. Both are more into the left wing of Jamaican music and love the roots of the 70s. One was a Steppaz influencer from the very beginning and played with Sound Iration, the other became a consultant for labels like Soul Jazz or Auralux after his time with the Ballistic Brothers. Manasseh and Hill im Yard produced the album with musicians from the local jazz and reggae scene "On The Grove", a collection of vocal and instrumental tunes. Among others, the guitarist and founder of the band Galliano and the Ruff Cut drummer Adrian McKenzie, whose filigree, virtuosic playing builds the stylistic bridge to the present in the Retro & Roots set, are involved. Half of the songs are instrumentals with a touch of jazz, two of which serve as templates for improvisations by guitarist Ernest Ranglin. An opulent wind section is cast with veterans like Henry Tenyue, who was already on Aswad's "Live & Direct", and young stars of the scene. Among them the trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey, whose afro-jazz band Kokoroko is currently sweeping London. She plays the solo on the instrumental version of Earl 16's Where The River. The vocal tunes all come from prominent artists. Earl 16 has a second tune based on his 1976 song "Changing World" recorded for Augustus Pablo. The song is resurrected here as "Got To Live" and is now blessed with a brass theme for eternity. Jamaican singer Devon Russel, who died in 1997 and was recorded by Manasseh shortly before his death, sings Curtis Mayfield's "Underground". The Heptones' old Studio One backing track "Tripe Girl" is refreshed for a new song by soul singer Alexia Coley. And Ken Boothe contributes a tune about which David Rodigan says, "Believe me, in time 'Tell Me Why' will be considered one of his greatest tracks." It was clear this album needed one Dub-pendant. And it was equally clear that the Dubs had to be created analogously on the mixing console. “In times when music is created entirely on the computer,” says Nick Manasseh, “mixing remains Dub an area where old-school mixers, filter, reverb, and echo gear are irreplaceable for the organic feel of Dub.” Where the recordings of “On The Grove” were made, Manasseh also has "Grove Dub" mixed. From the music behind the chants, he created filigree, never coarse mixes, over which a network of picturesque echoes stretches. Already the prelude “Meanwhile Dub“ celebrates them DubArt as a dynamic interplay between offbeat, trombone fills and drum'n'bass parts. The subtle charm of the unobtrusive opener continues in the other titles, where the original singers and instrumentalists only deliver splashes of color. Something else would have been created on the computer, Manasseh is sure of that, his mixes stand for the moment in which they happen: "Dub is spontaneous. You decide on the fly and it takes as long as the tune runs. Three minutes thirty and you have one Dub.” The release of both albums on the renowned Acid Jazz label shows the high status of both records, which are just as shaped by the NuJazz hype of London as by the golden years of the Dread & Roots era.