On his seventeenth album, the French dub pioneer Brain Damage has assembled together the Japanese experimentalist Emiko Ota and the British dub-eccentric Mad Professor and made a brilliantly strange record of what he calls ‘Post-Dub’. It is, however, so much more than that title suggests. Each track is named after one of the many mysterious spirits unique to the Japanese imagination - the yōkai - and each song takes on the unfathomable characteristics of these creatures, be they malevolent or benevolent to us mortals. Musically, the album swings from post-punk edge to cavernous digi-dub to curious theatrical vignettes, always with this sense of esoteric wonder. Read / Listen.
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‘Reflections of Pinters' - a musical journey through memories of Houghton Festival 2024
Looking warmly back to Houghton Festival 2024, this mix is a reflection, a mash of memories of the kind of sounds you might hear at Pinters, a zone of musical discovery away from the tougher electronic sonics that pepper the beautiful festival site, Pinters is where the organic, the esoteric and the hilarious (Reggie Watts being all three) converge. Obviously there were loads more DJs and live acts than just our (Truth & Lies) curated bits but the mix I’ve put together is a blend of tracks that I played, some I wished I’d played, some inspired by other DJ’s sets and a sprinkling of artists who performed live over the long weekend including Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, Sven Figee, Reggie, Harper Trio and Alabaster DePlume.
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AMAMI 'ISLANDS & ISLANDS DUB EP' (Bongo Joe Records) - a review
The Swiss trio AMAMI are back in full effect on their new EP for Bongo Joe Records. Heavyweight future dancehall with tropical and post-punk touches, this stellar package comes with four originals, four monster dub versions (including Mad Professor and Vibronics) and a separate 7” single. Read / Listen.
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Singular Visions - a random rundown of recent single releases (November 2024)
The November rundown of recent singles we have recently discovered. All kinds of music that we may not have time to cover as albums or one time one-offs. This episode includes Da Lata, Khalab feat Kasai Allstars, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, AMAMI, Leah Sinead, Black Flower, Work Money Death, Il Mario & more.
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Elijah Minnelli 'Perpetual Musket' (FatCat Records) - a review
Dub provocateur Elijah Minnelli has finally dropped a record with some guest vocalists and it is immense. Real life reggae legends Little Roy and Earl Sixteen, and the younger voices of Shumba Youth and Joe Yorke take turns interpreting old English folk standards over Elijah’s powerful and haunting dub reggae instrumentals. This is a heavyweight release that has already seen praise from folk royalty Peggy Seeger and is bound to find love from the progressive dub-heads as well as the traditionalists. Read / Listen.
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Damos Room 'Commencement // Mineral Blend' (Nudibranch) - a review
Weird broken dub for a weird broken world, Damos Room’s new E.P. on Nudibranch is both funny and dark. Eccentric in a very British way, its paranoid rambles and subsonic trembling will shake your speakers and ruin your picnic. With guest remixers such as LA’s hip hop brutalist Gonjasufi along for the ride, be ready. Read / Listen.
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Champagne Dub 'Rainbow' (On The Corner Records) - a review
The artwork on this debut album by Champagne Dub seems an appropriately disconcerting image for the kind of ‘dub’ contained. Apocalyptic at times, raw, improvised and very leftfield, the misfit band pulled together by Maxwell Hallett aka Betamax (Soccer96, The Comet Is Coming etc) have delivered a heavyweight dub patchwork that is brimming with post-punk energy and wild cosmic agitation. Ruth Goller, Clive Bell, Ed Briggs (laser bagpipes) and the masked Peruvian performance artist and vocalist, Mr Noodles, have brought flammables to the party. Read / Listen
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Woxow 'How Many Ancestors Do We Have' (Little Beat More) - a review
DJ and beatmaker Woxow’s new E.P. for his own label Little Beat More is a hip hop-jazz-dub release that hits all the right notes. Boom bap drums, live horns and bass with masterful vocal turns from Reggae Roast MC Natty Campbell, US MC’s Azeem and Raashan Ahmad alongside remixers Luke Beats, Deela, Koralle and Paolo Baldini Dubfiles make this a must for fans of Fat Freddy’s Drop, Roots Manuva or Doom. Read / Listen.
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Joaquín Cornejo meets Markandeya 'Vision Versions' (Earthly Measures) - a review
Ecuadorian producer Joaquín Cornejo has delivered a dub reinterpretation of another dub album from the Swedish producer Markandeya for Earthly Measures and it is really quite beautiful in it’s languid sundried atmosphere. Sensual, colourful and not without rhythmic surprises, this is perfect for horizontal living or cranked up for the dawn rave. Read / Listen
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Mauskovic Dance Band 'Bukaroo Bank' (Bongo Joe Records) - a review
The Amsterdam based outfit known for their hard-hitting tropical-fused grooves have returned to Bongo Joe with an album that sounds like an updated soundtrack to a night at The Hacienda circa 1982. Post-punk scratchy funk, cracked dub and all kinds of retro-future experimental sounds galore that will wobble the floor as well as your head. It’s great…. Read / Listen
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Edrix Puzzle 'Deep in Dionne' (On The Corner Records) - Single Premiere!
We present the PREMIERE of Edrix Puzzle’s second single from their forthcoming collision of cosmic jazz and heavyweight dub-funk - ''Coming Of The Moon Dogs” - released on On The Corner Records, the single is a militant yet loose drum and free violin number, a march to the cosmos through burning stars. Read / Listen
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Elijah Minnelli 'SLATS' (Breadminster County Council) - a preview
Elijah Minnelli creates dub that effortlessly brings cumbia, western and eastern folk idioms into the sound and it is brilliant. His new single is out in August on the Breadminster County Council label. Here is a preview. Read / Listen
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Gentlemen's Dub Club at the Rescue Rooms 19/02/20 - a review
Gentlemen’s Dub Club bring the skank and sweat to the Rescue Rooms…read more….
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