After
a long inertia, dub is coming back in force. Techno and its by-products,
including ambient, have incorporated dub's creative strength, thus contributing
to its rediscovery and renewal. The meeting was inevitable. Note that
dub-as an instrumental music-initiated the remix era, and in fact dubplates
are the precursors of the white-labels...
As comedown and break from the BPMs, ambient is definitely-in its ethereal aspects-the successor of the "space out" music of the 1970's. But this open and intelligent music is not restricted to the realm of synthesizers; it is comprised of reliefs and mixes, a whole range of special effects. Its connection to dub is obvious.
Beyond Records confirmed the ambient-dub assimilation with the release of the first "ambient dub" compilation in 1992. Soft, square, fun-all the aspects of this trend are represented by The Insanity Sect, Original Rockers (renamed Rockers Hi Fi), Mimoid and H.I.A.. Banco De Gaia, who made their first appearance on Beyond, perform an ambient, trance and tribal dub (Last Train To Lhassa, on Planet Dog), as do Horizon 222 (Though The Round Window and The Three Of Swans) and their clone Ingleton Falls (Absconded) on Charrm Records, thus following the path opened by The Orb.
On the other hand, Subsurfing offers a more subtle symphonia of ambiences and collage: a light and ethnic dub (Frozen Ants, Apollo/R&S) close to 23° (An Endless Searching For Substance and Born Of Earth's Torments, Silent Records). Stemming from the industrial trend, Richard H. Kirk, with his Sandoz project (for Touch Record), performs surprisingly kitch composition. To the contrary, Transcend are avant-gardiste in their decomposition of the bassline (2001-2008, N-Tone). Common ground: an utilization of sound libraries for mixes and extended tracks-the ultimate being the Woob's track 30-min. long ("On earth", on Em:t 1194). From The Infinite Wheel (Brainiak Rec.), through Sub Dub (Instinct Ambient period), Astral Engineering (Chronoglide, Worm Interface), Ambient Rituals 2 : A Trip Into Dub (D.O.V.e/Hypnotic) and Dub Tractor (Flex Records) to Electronic Dub (Rising High), ambient dub has exercised an increasing number of approaches and seems to never lack for resources-the potential borrowings, influences and mixtures are infinite.
It would take too long to make a list, group by group and title by title, of all the sounds copied from dubmasters, which often goes unnoticed by an audience lacking in reggae culture. But this is where ambient deserves all credit: it gives a second wind to dub without giving up a deep-rooted memory; it reasserts the immense flexibility of the dub structure through the diversity of mixes; it exposes dub to another audience, and drags along other types of music in its wake.
Let's go briefly over the associations among dub, house and the kind of commercial productions put out by Guerrilla Records, which carries Liquid and The Groove Corporation. Temple Roy alone (Deaf & Dumb, Different Drummer) sticks out of this house-dub club trend, with soulful lyrics and a bass-based sound. After ambient, it is bass which relaxes the sore ears of an audience keen on repetitive beats. In return, dub techno-logically wears the colors of this trend: sharp rhythms and a heavy line-bass make the body pulse and vibrate, the mind lost in the complexity of the mixes. This type of collective and musical hypnosis, the true basis of sound systems, has been (re)discovered by the ravers' generation.
As a consequence, the dub sounds become space -and/or acidbased, with Cosmic Connection (Zincode, Double Space Records) and DP-Sol ("Spacecakes" on Live In Oslo, The Spacefrogs), or even electro-deep with Braindub (In Your Brain, Sun), Blue (Resistance, Sabres Of Paradise Ltd) and Five-H-T (Neurotransmitter, Hypoxia Records). Without any compromise, the rhythm becomes speed: see (hear) Blue Bommer (Dub, Nation Rec.). Zip Doc Records, with Emperor Sly and especially Dubolition, is one of the premier labels of what must now be called techno-dub. Here again, a series of compilations assert this association: Club Meets Dub and Triangle Dub Clash. But some others groups, such as Moody Boyz or Bandulu (Cornerstone, Blanco Y Negro) refuse to make a choice in their compositions and play both.
Another hybrid form is the ragga/techno breakbeats connection-hardcore even-as a base of jungle. Expert ears can sometimes identify old reggae themes tumbling along this musical electric current. Jungle dub with its hard beats exists: Neon of Rhys Chatman & Martin Wheeler on N-Tone, the compilation Jungle Dub on Hardleaders and of course Mad Prof. (Mazurani : The Jungle Dub Experience, Ariwa). Abstract dub? Signs Ov Chaos : FrankenScience, Earache Records. The wanderings of Strongpoint and DigiDub (16 Millionths Of An Inch, Incoming!) are quite meaningful on this drift. And what the drum-and-bass conjunction could take out from dub begins to appear when-for instance with Osymyso (Being Born and Peter & The Wolf, Handsome), this musical style moves away from the clean and calibrated sounds of FM radio to become baroque. The drum-and-dub symbiosis is even more striking when crossbred with sounds from India (Calcutta Cyber Cafe, Drum + Space, Omni); or the Orient (Ebn E Sync. on WordSound Records).
Scene change. At the bridge of jazz, funk, soul and rap, bands that claim to play acid jazz did not hesitate, for one or two tracks, to explore the reggaeland dub; par exemple The Humble Souls and Raw Stylus. Acid Jazz label released two opus by The Hazardous Dub Company and re-released Mannaseh (Dub The Millenium). This label also created a subdivision named Acid Roots which especially deals with roots and instrumental reggae. But one expects Acid Jazz label to to produce jazzy-tainted dub tracks as did earlier on Shake Keen (Real Keen: reggae into jazz, LKJ Records) or Deadly Headly (35 years from Alpha, On-U Sound Records). Another synthesis, at the limits of acid jazz and hip-hop, is trip-hop, which acquired its nobility on the Mo Wax label. whose compilations present some innovative dub. On Beechwood, the second volume of the series 110 Bellow/Journey In Dub : Trip To The Ship Chop packs innovative trip-hop dub.
Taking advantage of these musical trends, a new dub wave anchored in the reggae scene has asserted itself. There are two tendencies. On the one hand, a new age is dawning for roots dub without excessive fioritura: deep bass, a round and polished sound. Alpha & Omega are representative of this renewal. This duet knows how to update a mystical and religious dub, down to the image of the icons that decorate their record covers (Daniels in the lion den/King & Queen and Watch and pray/Overstanding, A&O/Greensleeves). Dub Judah is definitely the main producer/director of this trend. The Rootsman (In Dub We Trust and Into The Light, Third Eye Music) and The Disciples (For Those Who Understand, Roots Rec.) are two the bands that have helped revive rthe roots spirit while taking into account today's resonances, (Resonations, Cloak & Dagger). Various sound-systems represent this new roots dub on such anthologies as Dubhead (Shiver M&D), Dub Revolution (ROIR) and Dub Out West (Nubian Rec.).
On the other hand, bands such as Zion Train exude a more "lay" dub-often a faster one (Natural wonders of the world in dub)-and tuned in to the English techno/dance scene (with Siren). Their label, Universal Egg, provides good examples of this other dubscape. Iration Steppers (Original Dub D.A.T., I.S. Records) has a warrior style, with a rhythm sustained by an abrupt and almost metallic sound. Together with Small Axe and Powersteppers (Bass Enforcement), they belong to the hardcore dub galaxy-no compromise. In the end, a new school is coming in (Mixman, Armagideon, Bush Chemist, The Dub Specialists, Shotgun Rockers, etc), and which takes the liberty to credit those who managed to keep going, (see (hear) the remixes of Dub Syndicate's Research & Development, On-U Sound).
Left are the "non-aligned" who, through their background, their processes and their music, de-partition dub, muddle up its notion and blow up its rules. One of the first of these bands was Scorn, which made a breach in performing an oppressive, dark and cold dub that revolves around a bass of frightening depths, (Evanescence, Earache). These bass experiments go on with Bill Laswell (Bass Terror), who speads the dub mushrooming with Automaton, Axiom Dub, Possession. Kevin Martin's Macro Dub Infection (Virgin) compilations present an almost complete scope of the various metastasises of dub, thus showing the contagious sprawling that encompasses even Coil.
Future dub ? In this game the rules seems to be abolished: Silk Saw (Come Freely, Go Safely, Sub Rosa). The first photos of the "dark side of dub" came to us from Brooklyn via WordSound Recording and its manifesto-compilation The Red Shift. The promised as no man's land : chaotic breakbeats and deafening bass-dub-hop or a melting pot of elements borrowed from dub and hip-hop. Dub is also a restrained and supressed violence as with Crooklyn Dub Consortium 1 & 2 and Equations Of Eternity (WordSound Records). No fun, but if this dub is dark, it is above all because it feeds on black music : reggae, ragga, jazz, funk, etc. The Australian label Extreme just started to move in this direction with its subdivision..., Extreme Dub! Relative to the combinaison of dub and ritual/industrial music, note that The Missing Brazilians (Warzone, On-U Sound) and Mark Stewart & Maffia were already active in this area!
Rebellion and deviousness of dub are the touchstones of DJ Spooky (Necropolis, Knitting Factory and Songs Of A Dead Dreamer, Asphodel) and the actors of illbient. They dispatch a noisy maeltr–m, rough, wild and tormented: music is an organized noise, so is dub. In this way the Serenity Dub (Incoming!) compilations extend dub's range. Some of its bands are far from reggae, but through their use of bass and their sound technical approach can be associated with dub: Muslimgauze for the roundness of some of its LPs, Rapoon for its use and mixes of loops, as well as Scanner, S.E.T.I., Nonplace Urban Field, pirates of the electronic avant-garde. Incoming!, the bass label precursor of this patchwork proposes the term neo-dub, which defines quite well the spread of the sound into various new-music currents.
Not many have been spared the dub virus, and its incubation continued.
Laurent Diouf
Translated from the French by Nicole Macintosh, published in "Reggae Rasta Revolution : jamaican music from ska to dub" edited by Chris Potash (Schirmer Books, 1997); excerpt adapted from article originally titled "Puissance Dub" and published in the French magazine "Octopus" (n°3, Winter 95).
As comedown and break from the BPMs, ambient is definitely-in its ethereal aspects-the successor of the "space out" music of the 1970's. But this open and intelligent music is not restricted to the realm of synthesizers; it is comprised of reliefs and mixes, a whole range of special effects. Its connection to dub is obvious.
Beyond Records confirmed the ambient-dub assimilation with the release of the first "ambient dub" compilation in 1992. Soft, square, fun-all the aspects of this trend are represented by The Insanity Sect, Original Rockers (renamed Rockers Hi Fi), Mimoid and H.I.A.. Banco De Gaia, who made their first appearance on Beyond, perform an ambient, trance and tribal dub (Last Train To Lhassa, on Planet Dog), as do Horizon 222 (Though The Round Window and The Three Of Swans) and their clone Ingleton Falls (Absconded) on Charrm Records, thus following the path opened by The Orb.
On the other hand, Subsurfing offers a more subtle symphonia of ambiences and collage: a light and ethnic dub (Frozen Ants, Apollo/R&S) close to 23° (An Endless Searching For Substance and Born Of Earth's Torments, Silent Records). Stemming from the industrial trend, Richard H. Kirk, with his Sandoz project (for Touch Record), performs surprisingly kitch composition. To the contrary, Transcend are avant-gardiste in their decomposition of the bassline (2001-2008, N-Tone). Common ground: an utilization of sound libraries for mixes and extended tracks-the ultimate being the Woob's track 30-min. long ("On earth", on Em:t 1194). From The Infinite Wheel (Brainiak Rec.), through Sub Dub (Instinct Ambient period), Astral Engineering (Chronoglide, Worm Interface), Ambient Rituals 2 : A Trip Into Dub (D.O.V.e/Hypnotic) and Dub Tractor (Flex Records) to Electronic Dub (Rising High), ambient dub has exercised an increasing number of approaches and seems to never lack for resources-the potential borrowings, influences and mixtures are infinite.
It would take too long to make a list, group by group and title by title, of all the sounds copied from dubmasters, which often goes unnoticed by an audience lacking in reggae culture. But this is where ambient deserves all credit: it gives a second wind to dub without giving up a deep-rooted memory; it reasserts the immense flexibility of the dub structure through the diversity of mixes; it exposes dub to another audience, and drags along other types of music in its wake.
Let's go briefly over the associations among dub, house and the kind of commercial productions put out by Guerrilla Records, which carries Liquid and The Groove Corporation. Temple Roy alone (Deaf & Dumb, Different Drummer) sticks out of this house-dub club trend, with soulful lyrics and a bass-based sound. After ambient, it is bass which relaxes the sore ears of an audience keen on repetitive beats. In return, dub techno-logically wears the colors of this trend: sharp rhythms and a heavy line-bass make the body pulse and vibrate, the mind lost in the complexity of the mixes. This type of collective and musical hypnosis, the true basis of sound systems, has been (re)discovered by the ravers' generation.
As a consequence, the dub sounds become space -and/or acidbased, with Cosmic Connection (Zincode, Double Space Records) and DP-Sol ("Spacecakes" on Live In Oslo, The Spacefrogs), or even electro-deep with Braindub (In Your Brain, Sun), Blue (Resistance, Sabres Of Paradise Ltd) and Five-H-T (Neurotransmitter, Hypoxia Records). Without any compromise, the rhythm becomes speed: see (hear) Blue Bommer (Dub, Nation Rec.). Zip Doc Records, with Emperor Sly and especially Dubolition, is one of the premier labels of what must now be called techno-dub. Here again, a series of compilations assert this association: Club Meets Dub and Triangle Dub Clash. But some others groups, such as Moody Boyz or Bandulu (Cornerstone, Blanco Y Negro) refuse to make a choice in their compositions and play both.
Another hybrid form is the ragga/techno breakbeats connection-hardcore even-as a base of jungle. Expert ears can sometimes identify old reggae themes tumbling along this musical electric current. Jungle dub with its hard beats exists: Neon of Rhys Chatman & Martin Wheeler on N-Tone, the compilation Jungle Dub on Hardleaders and of course Mad Prof. (Mazurani : The Jungle Dub Experience, Ariwa). Abstract dub? Signs Ov Chaos : FrankenScience, Earache Records. The wanderings of Strongpoint and DigiDub (16 Millionths Of An Inch, Incoming!) are quite meaningful on this drift. And what the drum-and-bass conjunction could take out from dub begins to appear when-for instance with Osymyso (Being Born and Peter & The Wolf, Handsome), this musical style moves away from the clean and calibrated sounds of FM radio to become baroque. The drum-and-dub symbiosis is even more striking when crossbred with sounds from India (Calcutta Cyber Cafe, Drum + Space, Omni); or the Orient (Ebn E Sync. on WordSound Records).
Scene change. At the bridge of jazz, funk, soul and rap, bands that claim to play acid jazz did not hesitate, for one or two tracks, to explore the reggaeland dub; par exemple The Humble Souls and Raw Stylus. Acid Jazz label released two opus by The Hazardous Dub Company and re-released Mannaseh (Dub The Millenium). This label also created a subdivision named Acid Roots which especially deals with roots and instrumental reggae. But one expects Acid Jazz label to to produce jazzy-tainted dub tracks as did earlier on Shake Keen (Real Keen: reggae into jazz, LKJ Records) or Deadly Headly (35 years from Alpha, On-U Sound Records). Another synthesis, at the limits of acid jazz and hip-hop, is trip-hop, which acquired its nobility on the Mo Wax label. whose compilations present some innovative dub. On Beechwood, the second volume of the series 110 Bellow/Journey In Dub : Trip To The Ship Chop packs innovative trip-hop dub.
Taking advantage of these musical trends, a new dub wave anchored in the reggae scene has asserted itself. There are two tendencies. On the one hand, a new age is dawning for roots dub without excessive fioritura: deep bass, a round and polished sound. Alpha & Omega are representative of this renewal. This duet knows how to update a mystical and religious dub, down to the image of the icons that decorate their record covers (Daniels in the lion den/King & Queen and Watch and pray/Overstanding, A&O/Greensleeves). Dub Judah is definitely the main producer/director of this trend. The Rootsman (In Dub We Trust and Into The Light, Third Eye Music) and The Disciples (For Those Who Understand, Roots Rec.) are two the bands that have helped revive rthe roots spirit while taking into account today's resonances, (Resonations, Cloak & Dagger). Various sound-systems represent this new roots dub on such anthologies as Dubhead (Shiver M&D), Dub Revolution (ROIR) and Dub Out West (Nubian Rec.).
On the other hand, bands such as Zion Train exude a more "lay" dub-often a faster one (Natural wonders of the world in dub)-and tuned in to the English techno/dance scene (with Siren). Their label, Universal Egg, provides good examples of this other dubscape. Iration Steppers (Original Dub D.A.T., I.S. Records) has a warrior style, with a rhythm sustained by an abrupt and almost metallic sound. Together with Small Axe and Powersteppers (Bass Enforcement), they belong to the hardcore dub galaxy-no compromise. In the end, a new school is coming in (Mixman, Armagideon, Bush Chemist, The Dub Specialists, Shotgun Rockers, etc), and which takes the liberty to credit those who managed to keep going, (see (hear) the remixes of Dub Syndicate's Research & Development, On-U Sound).
Left are the "non-aligned" who, through their background, their processes and their music, de-partition dub, muddle up its notion and blow up its rules. One of the first of these bands was Scorn, which made a breach in performing an oppressive, dark and cold dub that revolves around a bass of frightening depths, (Evanescence, Earache). These bass experiments go on with Bill Laswell (Bass Terror), who speads the dub mushrooming with Automaton, Axiom Dub, Possession. Kevin Martin's Macro Dub Infection (Virgin) compilations present an almost complete scope of the various metastasises of dub, thus showing the contagious sprawling that encompasses even Coil.
Future dub ? In this game the rules seems to be abolished: Silk Saw (Come Freely, Go Safely, Sub Rosa). The first photos of the "dark side of dub" came to us from Brooklyn via WordSound Recording and its manifesto-compilation The Red Shift. The promised as no man's land : chaotic breakbeats and deafening bass-dub-hop or a melting pot of elements borrowed from dub and hip-hop. Dub is also a restrained and supressed violence as with Crooklyn Dub Consortium 1 & 2 and Equations Of Eternity (WordSound Records). No fun, but if this dub is dark, it is above all because it feeds on black music : reggae, ragga, jazz, funk, etc. The Australian label Extreme just started to move in this direction with its subdivision..., Extreme Dub! Relative to the combinaison of dub and ritual/industrial music, note that The Missing Brazilians (Warzone, On-U Sound) and Mark Stewart & Maffia were already active in this area!
Rebellion and deviousness of dub are the touchstones of DJ Spooky (Necropolis, Knitting Factory and Songs Of A Dead Dreamer, Asphodel) and the actors of illbient. They dispatch a noisy maeltr–m, rough, wild and tormented: music is an organized noise, so is dub. In this way the Serenity Dub (Incoming!) compilations extend dub's range. Some of its bands are far from reggae, but through their use of bass and their sound technical approach can be associated with dub: Muslimgauze for the roundness of some of its LPs, Rapoon for its use and mixes of loops, as well as Scanner, S.E.T.I., Nonplace Urban Field, pirates of the electronic avant-garde. Incoming!, the bass label precursor of this patchwork proposes the term neo-dub, which defines quite well the spread of the sound into various new-music currents.
Not many have been spared the dub virus, and its incubation continued.
Laurent DioufTranslated from the French by Nicole Macintosh, published in "Reggae Rasta Revolution : jamaican music from ska to dub" edited by Chris Potash (Schirmer Books, 1997); excerpt adapted from article originally titled "Puissance Dub" and published in the French magazine "Octopus" (n°3, Winter 95).