The producer conglomerate Zion I Kings should no longer be an unknown size, as it combines the best of the houses Zion High Productions, Luster Kings and I Grade. All three are associated with reggae from the US Virgin Islands, and there primarily with the productions for Vaughn Benjamin and his Midnite and Akae Beka incarnations. The results were sometimes very fine albums like "Infinite quality"/"Infinite Dub"(Luster Kings Productions),"Lived"(Zion High Productions) or the superb album trilogy"Beauty for Ashes","Ride Tru" and "Portals“(I Grade Productions).
Although the last-mentioned I Grade albums were released in quick succession, they were never conceived as triplets. And yet they not only combine excellent production, first-class sound and, by Vaughn Benjamin standards, downright hit hooklines; it's also Style Scott's signature drums that add immense value to most of these tracks. It was probably one of his last and, in my opinion, best sessions. So good that the Zion I Kings got together on a sad occasion and made one of these recordings Dub- Mixing tributes: "Dub in Style - A Zion I Kings Tribute to Style Scott".
And so it is Dub-Giant originated on which all subsequent Zion I Kings-Dub Releases had to measure. Meanwhile we are at "Zion Ites Dub - Zion I Kings Dub Flight. 4“(Zion High Productions) arrived, and I frankly admit: Without Style Scott, the whole thing is only worth half, but it certainly deserves the title 'Successful'. This time there may not be a bassline nestling in the cochlea; one or the other successful brass section seems to be quite suitable for this. As is typical for Zion I Kings, there is little to criticize about the production itself - from the timeless, focused on echo and reverb Dub-Mix without further sound-technical bells and whistles up to the dynamics-conserving mixdown were long-serving professionals at work. Only the kick drum is a bit muffled, but looks amazingly well in the sometimes meditative soundscapes:
This is also where the album's admittedly somewhat strange strength seems to lie: although it is varied, no track has emerged as a favorite, even after listening to it a lot. “Zion Ites Dub“Seems to be an acoustic journey through a vast plane that starts over as soon as it is over. You could of course blame the pressed “Repeat” button for this - but I have no need to change that.
16 responses to “Zion I Kings: Zion Ites Dub Vol. 4 "
Moin gtkriz and everyone who likes Dub Listen !
That's very interesting! Just last Friday I mentioned in a “conspiratorial exchange of ideas” that the Zion I Kings no longer flash me as they did with “Zion I Kings Dub Vol. 2 ". And now we get an explanation of what that may be in the first place. Style Scott is missing! That anyway! Not only do I miss Style Scott very much, but the whole thing Dub Syndicate! I don't know, however, whether he was still in Vol. 2. But I think I can vaguely remember that you told me about it back then.
I was also good at Vol. 3 even if I didn't pay attention to Style Scott Style either. But there were still some really good riddims and, above all, Tippy I (or something like that) really wanted to show how his definition of Dub listens. I liked it and I like it very much. But without Style Scott the whole thing is only worth half for my taste, especially since the BassLines lacks a little magic.
The most valuable information in this review for me is the link to "Dub In Style - A Zion King's Tribute To Style Scott. ”I didn't even know it!
But while we're already headed towards Midnight, Akae Beka or Vaughn Benjamin, I'd like a little one Dub Look ahead, or I would really like to see Tippy I take care of very special riddims.
I just got myself the "Spirit Of Standing Up" from Akae Beka and I can't put into words how much some of the most riddims here literally put me in a trance. The riddims are pretty pretty too dubbig but when you get the "chatterbox" Vaughn Benjamin on dubwould reduce the acceptable minimum, I would be extremely excited about the Dubs that are in there. Before getting some gasps that I had the nerve to call Vaughn Benjamin a chatterbox, I should mention that "chatterbox" is not a swear word and can be meant lovable in a slightly different context. Besides, if everything is as I think, then he'll know exactly what I think of his extremely high range of texts. The riddim, which at the moment lifts me to the highest level of musical perception, is in position 7 and serves as a rhythm carpet for the tune “The Earth is the Lords” !!! Even with Vaughn Benjamin, this is currently my thickest board and my undisputed number one! But when Dub it would be a revelation for me!
"The road of Live is rocky and you may stumble too" ……. Of course I don't want you to hurt yourself gtkriz but you should get over them DubWindow "stumble", please let me / us know very quickly so that I can slide a soft cotton mat underneath.
"Bailout Bailout Bailout! Babylon sinking! “…………………………………… lemmi
* shock * you know "Dub in style ”not? BLASPHEMY!!!
Here you can see again how absolutely indispensable the dubblog.de is ... water for the thirsty :-)))
Chapeau, lemmi, that you got the Akae Beka album ... that's not for whimpering Dub- reviewers like me; these ears of mine can't stand that. But I can understand that you particularly like the one track ... has beautiful ones DubEffects. Otherwise, I wonder why Benjamin's live bassist makes such albums. Because of live / band feeling, because of basslines. I don't say anything, I just mean!
PS: If my bass-soiled pig ears don't deceive me, Zion I Kings are on the otherDub-Albums still represent a few Style Scott recordings.
How am I supposed to know the gtkriz ?!
She's not in the deep in for me either Dub Playlist "appeared". Before that she was also in DubBlog not yet reviewed. Or have I now outed my complete attention deficit? So far all of me are Zion I Kings Dubs - especially volume 2 - was noticed very positively. Well, you will probably answer
"Dub In Style is in the playlist and you can find the review exactly where it says “but the cat is out of the bag! I have sinned ;-) …….
I often think that's Style Scott! But as a drummer you might have better judgment than me.
In any case, it was once again very valuable to have this here in the DubHaving clarified blog. You don't have to like it but if you should "stumble" over it,
throw the stick between my legs. I would love to stumble upon it.
Greetings ………………… lemmi
jooo… "deep in dub“It's a very, very, very long playlist, lemmi, you will make completely different discoveries over time, I hope… the best thing to do is to hear“ shuffle / random playback ”, you should hear about one or the other unknown part stumble.
Style Scott, like Sly Dunbar, is relatively easy to recognize, I think also for non-drummers:
- exact, steady timing & exact stop
- wonderfully tuned toms (they are the easiest to recognize, hardly anyone else has them)
- Timbales not too sharp
- voluminous snare
- own, recognizable rolls / fills
- He very often plays a skinless tambourine to the drums himself
- it all sounds very nice and rounded, which is obviously not so much the result of the miking, rather the drum kit itself ... sounds (almost) the same everywhere
Something like that ... you can very well on "Dub in Style ”or“ Hard Food ”if you are interested.
I have to admit that I'm reaching my limits.
"Exact steady timing" shouldn't every drummer be able to do that anyway? "I really couldn't see that, since someone is completely wrong. But that would probably be hung in some tree by all the other band members next to the French chansoners pretty quickly.
I definitely think I can always recognize the wonderfully tuned toms. And of all people, my favorite drummer even uses it a lot
a tambourine and that without a skin. Yes, even a Style Scott was not always free from sin ... I just can't take this part off! I have a real trauma from my youth. I got this Raschelding “always” in music lessons because I couldn't play an instrument at all. There was always only the thing or the triangle. I could start crying right away ...
Especially when it comes to “hard food”, he has it again for my taste
"On the drum". Everything is really right! As far as I can tell. Yes and "Dub In Style “is really a nice new one
Knowledge or revelation!
"All I need is Dub“………………………. lemmi
yes, every drummer should be able to ... "cough * ... I think today it's easier live and in the studio ... many play with a click (from a certain professionalism). The only certain exception I know of: Ali Tersch, drummer of Dubblestandart (aka the one from Kalimba is my Telephone in Dub) plays without a click - which I find amazing whether the loops that are played there live.
@ Tambourine: is' big represented in the reggae percussions - the roots, the tambourine…. so to speak :-)
Hmmm, you've got a few interesting details right now. "CLICK" doesn't tell me anything in this context. It doesn't have to be part of a small private crash course
degenerate into drumming for little Lemmi, but you could explain that with the "click" again on occasion. Or I have to let uncle google explain it.
And unfortunately that is also true with the tambourines in Roots Reggae. "Chanell No.1" in particular always annoyed me very well. I also see it as an advantage if I have certain exclusion criteria. Otherwise my “collection” of reggae discs would be four times as big. And I don't really need that. Some tunes, however, are so good again that I only notice the “BlechRaschel” after the twentieth run. Then it’s too late …………. Either I never hear the tune again or I just say "fuck it" the music is still great!
"Hey Mr. Tambourine Man" …………. (Unfortunately I don't know any more) ………………………. lemmi
Click is nothing but a click track in the in-ears. So it's kind of like a metronome that is played along with the other instruments via headphones. I am already daring to go a long way so that someone else can explain that better and more conclusively. Step forward, artists & engineers.
"... play a song for me" (unfortunately I don't know any more)
Ah yes ! Thanks gtkriz!
But then I have to continue a little bit of “rumbitchen” (English translation of a 0 + 1 interpreter for “rumzicken”).
I've never seen anything like that live in reggae, and I'll say that thoroughbred musicians with African roots don't need that. They feel that in advance. You can also tell when you dance ……… The grace with which Africans in particular move to music creates one for me
Goosebumps of joy !!! We can rehearse as many choreographies as we want here. It will never come across as elegant and graceful as when an African woman only makes a tiny movement with her little finger in the right rhythm to the music. This is exactly what my colleague and I have just unanimously agreed again.
The MoonWalk alone is something that could never have come from Europe.
Ok, that went beyond the real goal, but I also have my "clicks" and even more ticks in my head.
But personally, too, I wouldn't be in the mood to hit a KlickTune on my ear to the great groove of "my band". That would be like me z. B. to "Hard Food" from Dub Syndicate would learn French vocabulary at the same time. I could understand perfectly just this “distorted face”, which Style Scott always did when the band got into his groove. It wasn't distorted by pain, just a bit “overwhelmed” to show the true feelings in a single facial expression.
“You could use the power and magic of an individual Dubs in a single face, it would be Style Scott's face. "
Do not worry. Everything is fine with me! ……………………. lemmi
Hmmm. I put it this way: if you have a good groove, you don't have to be suitable for the studio or the stage. Somewhat like with some singers: Just because you have a microphone in your hand you don't have to start singing right away ... * cough cough cough cough * cough cough cough *
:-)))
Hehe, yes that was or is really a certain problem, which we cannot dismiss in reggae. Many people think, "because we like to listen to reggae, we can endure anything". Although I have a “Corona suspicion” with a strong cough from everyone who misses one or the other tune, which I still find really good, but that's all a bit like the motto, “Even a blind hen finds a grain ”Or“ every deaf snake still catches its mouse ”.
"JAH give I Strength" from Buju Banton and his "Destiny" are evergreens for me, which still create the best feelings in me.
“Da Real Thing” from Sizzla hits me right, but that's about it by and large. Buju's “new one” is no good to me.
And for me Chezidek is also a victim of Vp. One would be blaring
Don't sit so loudly on the riddims, which are pretty limp anyway, so I could handle it better.
I found "Roots" by Ethana so awesome that I ordered a record from her without hearing it. When I heard her at home, I thought Miriah Carry and Whitney Cough are singing in a duet! I also threw away a record of African Head Charge because the singer (I can't come up with the name right now) also thinks he can sing.
Then to believe that the African Head Charge could work without Adrian Sherwood made me really angry, so I kicked the window down the stairs. Sometimes I am a little too
Choleric who sometimes overreacts.
But I can live with all that, because I am completely satisfied when the soul of the riddim - BASS & DRUM - (not to be confused with drum and bass) is at peace and always injects the power of reggae into me .
That's strange, because actually there was originally and about one
long period - for my taste - very good singers. And I find it even more strange that these singers always gave a lot of space for the music and didn't paste the entire 4/4 time with text and voice. Strangely enough, this “cheekiness is also typical, only those who are not really into singing. And with all this nonsense, many people wonder why I (we) say so often that everything was better in the past. On Dub at least that's not the case, I think. Although I have to cut back a little bit with the newly discovered riddims, because really JACKING (not rocking) does one Dub with me only if it is an old well-known riddim from Jamaica. Or which - in a completely inexplicable way - comes very close.
As a DubBut I'm a fan of the technology and that progresses
definitely always moving forward. So it can happen, for example, that I covered
DubIt's even more popular today than the originals.
Sorry if I wrote too plain text at one point or another. Could have sounded a little nasty but I haven't had breakfast yet ...... lemmi
I think it's good that you have such a healthy distance from reggae & Dub you care and don't take everything in a principled and dutiful frenzy of joy, lemmi. This sometimes critical discussion has earned “our” music and distinguishes imo as a real, devoted fan. Respect!
Yo thank you gtkriz!
Respect is always good! However, I first had to reach a certain age with the associated “wisdom” in order to achieve a somewhat healthier relationship with my reggae madness. I don't have to get completely healthy because I can't wish for a better “disease” than “reggaemylitis” …….
But to be honest again, I have to admit that it used to be very different (between 16 and 25). Anyone who didn't like reggae wasn't a real person for me ;-). There was also “white = bad” and “black = good”. It was true to some extent, given the slavery and treatment of Jamaican emigrants in Hinglan. Apartheid in South Africa, today still “Black Lifes Matter” / Africans are sometimes kept alive by orcs with police coins in their cells
burned (in d-land mind you, a country that speaks of “values”, tssssssss …….) And so on and so on ……………………….
Then I heard about the worst orcs ever. Boko Haram !!! All Africans who act against their own people in a bestial manner and in their name too
Allah's. One cannot sin worse than that. Boom A Yeh! Or something like that ... I only have words left for these organisms that I would like to spare you now.
(But even these may have only been bred by Aral BP and their company). I would never have thought an African would do that, and that was exactly where my naiveté lay for a long, long time.
Yes, there is an inventory in my sewing box today. Hit me, bite me, condemn me for not talking nicely here like a "do-gooder". I mean all those who don't Dub may even want to show understanding for the worst criminals and accidentally read something here. “Do-gooders” who consider themselves so good that they can tell me which luxury food is good for me and forbid me to use a medicinal herb and sell a neurotoxin produced by orcs legally in every shop. And if I then “kill” someone, I get extenuating circumstances because of being completely drunk. I don't care now whether these completely unbelievable facts are actually true, but it's the fault of the “do-gooders” in our media, because they told me that. I find it really sneaky that you are already put in the "right drawer" just because you use the word "do-gooders". No! These are the bad guys! If only it were that far, they would forbid me to “smoke” in my own apartment and I would only be allowed to pee while sitting …………………
"Police and Thieves In The Streets" …………. I'm going in the gate ……………………… lemmi
Heyii lemmi & gtkriz
I was just very happy and amused about your longer exchange and read (almost) everything ... yeah man, dub is I drink & food ... I can't get out of listening to the bass in these lockdown times ...
Pearls that I still discovered and that were previously unwritten on Dubblog went by, but in my opinion would be worth a review:
- Chazbo - Shaolin School Of Dub (2020)
https://rootsyouthsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/shaolin-school-of-dub-vol-2-chazbo
The heavy rock track that opens the whole thing is just a divine revelation and it has little to no vocals ...
- Headcornerstone - Crystal Towers (2020)
https://newflowerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/headcornerstone-crystal-towers
12 ″ vinyl with 2 exceptionally good vocal and DubVersions, a highlight!
- Yabass Yaba Radics - Year Zero Dubb (2020)
https://horninsounds.bandcamp.com/album/year-zero-dubb
Flashed, to the point, radically minimal; little, but very special vocals (almost a wail), but suitable!
- Tropical Dub Connection - Global Meditation Dubwise Vol. 1 mixtape (2021)
https://tropicaldubconnection.bandcamp.com/album/global-meditation-dubwise-vol-1mixtape
A combo that I haven't had on my radar for long, but which brings along very fresh new approaches and is open to other sounds ... anyway Dub in its purest form!
Maybe you like to take a moment or two to heart ...
Yeh bless
Philip
Hi Philipp,
thanks (again) for the good tips!
Yabass Yaba Radics… very cool, merci @ Philipp