More Dub Vibes From The Echo Chamber

We love us some dub vibes up here in the everythingsgonegreen tree hut, so just a quick post to highlight the release of yet another volume (or two) in the Dan Dada Records ‘Echo Chamber Around The World’ series of excellent compilation albums. We're up to volumes 9 and 10, featuring Aotearoa’s own Dub Terminator, plus 34 more top notch dub and roots reggae tracks from a wide range of artists. My own favourites here are tracks from Burning Babylon, Dubmatix (ft Earl Zero), Ras Bruno, Mystical Warrior, DU3normal, Mr Zebra & Rebel I, Dubalizer, Guidub, and Funk Dub Division, but there’s no real duds on this expansive globetrotting release. Released under an international Creative Commons license, free downloads don’t get much better than this … here’s the label’s blurb and a Bandcamp link:

For the last 22 years Dr. StrangeDub (Michael Rose) and DJ Baby Swiss (Elmar Romain) have been bringing dubwise sounds to the massive on their radio program the Echo Chamber. With the heaviest dubs, the most conscious roots, and the funkiest club beats from around the world, all chilled and expertly mixed into a subsonic stew, the Echo Chamber is always the hippest place to be every Wednesday morning (from 2:00 to 6:00 a.m US CST). The program airs on KFAI-FM in Minneapolis, MN (U.S.A.) at the 90.3 and 106.7 frequencies, and streams online at www.kfai.org. Find the playlists and two most recent programs in the KFAI-FM archive at: www.kfai.org/echochamber. Also check the two online archives of past shows: Mixcloud -- www.mixcloud.com/strangedub/

A typical show features a heavy dose of the latest roots & dub reggae and a potent shot of old school roots and dub. But dub just lays the foundation and holds the trip together: the DJ dub doctors cover the entire reggae rainbow, and they pull in the heaviest chilled beats from clubs around the world. For most shows, Dr. StrangeDub is at the controls for the first 2 hours, while DJ Baby Swiss "runs tings" in the second half of the show. For this compilation, the Echo Chamber has once again teamed up with Bandulu Dub and Dan Dada Records to present a worldwide trip into Dub. This collection represents a broad variety of musical styles... and spans the globe in doing so. This is very much in keeping with the eclectic "anything goes" format of the Echo Chamber radio program – where “dub” is as much an attitude or approach to music as it is a genre of music. On behalf of Dan Dada Records, Dr. StrangeDub (Michael Rose) and DJ Baby Swiss (Elmar Romain) extend our undying gratitude to all the artists and record labels that agreed to be a part of this worldwide dubwise project! Spreading the positive dubwise vibe to the world... 

Dubmatix - Mysterium Dub

Going back a few years, another early blog favourite for everythingsgonegreen was Canadian roots/dub specialist Dubmatix. Well, he’s back better than ever in early 2015 (the truth is, he never really went away) with a bandcamp freebie in the form of a track called ‘Mysterium Dub’ … check it out below:

Roots dub harkening back to the King Tubby era with a dose of modern dub. Spring reverbs, classic Roland echoes, tube reverb, live instruments. Old school.

Echo Chamber – Around The World In Dub

In keeping with recent everythingsgonegreen themes and continuing our look at the global spread of dub music, here’s a great set of compilation/sampler albums from Dan Dada Records … Echo Chamber – Around The World In Dub Volumes 1 & 2 from July 2012, and its wicked twin, Volumes 3 & 4, released digitally earlier this week.

Each is a name-yer-price download and each showcases some of the best state-of-the-art dub you’re likely to hear in 2013. A truly international line-up features the work of artists from every corner of the globe, often in unlikely collaboration.

Highlights include the work of Bandulu Dub (with multiple contributions across all four volumes), plus some great stuff from the likes of Dubmatix, Celt Islam feat. Dawoud Kringle, Volfoniq, DU3normal, and our own Dub Terminator & Ras Stone.

Get the downloads here:

Echo Chamber - Around The World In Dub Volumes 1 & 2

Echo Chamber - Around The World In Dub Volumes 3 & 4

Just Browsing: Free stuff on Soundcloud ... Part Three: Dubmatix

It’s fair to say that with a handful of full-length album releases and a large number of other digital releases safely stashed away in his swag bag, Toronto-based producer Dubmatix (aka Jesse King) is no mere novice or low profile newcomer. But he’s worthy of mention here simply because in Soundcloud terms he remains my most reliable “go to” guy whenever I’m looking for a fix of conscious roots or steppa-style dub … which, it’s also fair to say, is quite often these days.

I first stumbled across his work in late 2010 via a remix of Bob Marley’s ‘Is This Love’ (Dubmatix Re-Visioned) and have subsequently over the past 18 months found myself repeatedly returning to his Soundcloud and/or Bandcamp pages to dig out new gems from the vast back catalogue of free downloads available. Seldom am I disappointed with what I find there.

It isn’t just the work of other artists that King explores; he is a brilliant musician in his own right, a multi-instrumentalist, and many of the releases are exclusively his own work. There are plenty of collaborations to sate the appetite too, with a veritable who’s who of more established artists right across the spectrum – from rocksteady (the late Alton Ellis) to roots (Mighty Diamonds, Michael Rose) to more current flavours (Brother Culture, Easy Stars) – having all benefitted from the gritty down to earth Dubmatix treatment.

On all of his releases, somehow this Canadian white guy manages to conjure up the spirit of a long repressed Jamaican exploring his deepest darkest Ethiopian roots, all albums (look for CD releases as well as digital files) are recommended listening, and I retain personal affection for his 2011 Clash Of The Titans – The System Shakedown Remixes set.

Spoil yourself here:

http://soundcloud.com/dubmatix

http://dubmatix.bandcamp.com/

And have a listen to one from the archives:

And a truly respectful tempo-bending variation on one of Bob Marley’s best loved treasures … great stuff: