MUSIC

A double shot of Y2K digi thrillers from Sydney via Bromley electro-dub producer Jeff Dread. Part of the city’s burgeoning network of blunted bass and sound system culture, Dread worked in parallel with the likes of Sheriff Lindo, Andy Rantzen and Ali Omar, issuing two dynamite albums on Creative Vibes in 1999 and 2001. Utilising the Atari 1020 Ste, Dread would frantically live mix up to 9 tracks direct to CD-R, echoing the same rough and ready low tech intuition as Jamaican trailblazers King Tubby, Scientist and Jack Ruby and their UK-based disciples Jah Shaka, Adrian Sherwood and Mad Professor. While unmarked discs of his indulgently durational sessions litter the archives, this plate showcases versions immortalised by two crucial compilation CDs. Wicked stepper ‘Dub The Farmer’s Daughter’ burrows the ear canal with its addictive melodica and tightly coiled acid synth lines, edited for high impact by Sheriff Lindo for his volume of Dub For the Masses (Dread would curate its successor), while ‘Out On A Limb’ hails from Just Is, a double album sequenced by legendary Sydney queer party crew Club Kooky. A bass bin creeper that was extended with horns for his second longplayer Return From Alpha One, it’s this unembellished work in progress that really stings. With Dread’s allegiance to local sound system heavyweights Firehouse, these totally brained studio jams are tried and tested weapons, finally blasting on the sacred 7” format.

After highly acclaimed releases from OK EG and Donald’s House, Wax’o Paradiso Recordings proudly welcomes Naarm/Melbourne producer Midnight Tenderness (Ryan Hunter) to the fold. Over four tracks the ‘Hydrosphere EP’ continues the label’s narrative of platforming contemporary antipodean psychedelia with three masterful productions and a remix from Boorloo/Perth’s Hame DJ.

As a producer with influences rooted in dub, street soul, boogie and the DNA of UK club music, Ryan draws down on the Middy T sound with the title track ‘Hydrosphere’, a blend of broken machine funk, glistening synth lines and beautiful crisp drum programming. ‘Rain Vibe’ takes the sound palette further adding a hefty wub for good measure. ‘Catamaran’ transports us back to the golden era on the Balearic isles, with the original evoking Ibizan sunset cruises whilst Hame DJ’s remix brings some Madchester chug to the mix.

From "Pressure Sounds", a prestigious label known for its archival reissues of precious and high-quality reggae/dub sound sources, a collection of treasured recordings by his beloved disciple Patrick Andy, produced by Yabby Yu, has appeared. The work is based on an unreleased treasured tape compiled by Vivian Yabby Yu Jackson, The Best Of Patrick Andy. This treasured tape contains three previously unreleased tracks, one previously unreleased dub, and stereo mixes of several singles previously only available in mono. "Living In Mount Zion" and "You Don't Want Me" were only monaural on previous 7-inch releases, but this album is completely stereo, featuring Yabby You's unique horn and rhythm track panning. He also showed a production trick to switch left and right. A precious collection of treasured sound sources created by an encounter between a wonderful singer and a legendary producer.

The third and final part of a trilogy of EPs from Al Wootton of deep, textural, off kilter techno, influenced by the forest. Sparse, rolling, minimal percussive tracks, dubbed out and primed for soundsystems.

Dragon Dance is the third release by Twin Cities Sound System duo, Feel Free Hi Fi following the Prophet Noir EP and a split 12” with Kingston's Equiknoxx in 2021. Dragon Dance's instrumentals pick up where Prophet Noir left off. The dark dystopian industrialism of Prophet Noir remains present in Dragon Dance but in lieu of a dancehall influenced approach, Dragon Dance leans into the duo's love of foundation UK steppers and dub history. The blend of deep and subtle textures create tracks that are both heavy and minimal. Dragon Dance is another glimpse into Feel Free Hi Fi's uneasily defined musical vision.
The records come in double sided silkscreen printed DJ jackets, with Obi Strip style stickers and hand stamped white labels created and printed by Digital Sting.

Created and Produced by S. Reed and D. Maxwell at Digital Sting HQ
Mastered by Alec Ness and Greg Reierson
Artwork by S. Reed

merch video community Tascam Space Season by Noda & Wolfers Share / Embed You own this supported by mackadub thumbnail mackadub I´m in love with this album! :) I can only recommend to give it a try!! Favorite track: スーパーナチュラル・ミキシング・デスク Supernatural Mixing Desk. Elastico solido thumbnail Elastico solido Best soundtrack for the upcoming season Favorite track: 奇妙な秋 Strange Autumn. Lord Dubious thumbnail Lord Dubious Proper 21st century rockers-like dubwise. Refreshingly lofi with no absence of heaviness. Favorite track: ダブの原型 Archetypes in Dub. more... JT thumbnail emjaycee thumbnail high_peak_drifter thumbnail Lowmo thumbnail cooling_the_medium thumbnail deeplhouzz thumbnail draygun thumbnail Con Man thumbnail Anton Nordström thumbnail Raffer7 thumbnail dʒay thumbnail bnips thumbnail renhop thumbnail stevietink thumbnail 謙太郎 金田 thumbnail davidedel thumbnail james1208 thumbnail Glen Cutwerk thumbnail Ron Ron Jones thumbnail Susannarrr thumbnail Scott Rutherford thumbnail riccardo ramello thumbnail jns.kln thumbnail Rol[s]an thumbnail from a height thumbnail Sebastian B thumbnail Ken Hidaka thumbnail GARY WARNER thumbnail Lost in Stars thumbnail Kool Hersh thumbnail Happy Folks Together thumbnail seth ogden thumbnail Pete Morrish thumbnail Jeffrey Wentworth Stevens thumbnail mummdad thumbnail Owen Knowles thumbnail D O G B I T E S V R thumbnail jbhood1487 thumbnail The Abominable Slowman thumbnail Silent Season thumbnail Toblermone thumbnail HARKO™ thumbnail aairplane77 thumbnail Jeff Stanfield thumbnail Jazzmond Farquhar thumbnail Atom Jetsam thumbnail jchiverton thumbnail Keefism thumbnail rtype thumbnail crippled_lucifer thumbnail Guillaume Lafrance thumbnail ‎‎​‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ thumbnail Dapej thumbnail kyril garcia thumbnail yex_x thumbnail ktz thumbnail sim0n. thumbnail Kevin1976 thumbnail 87477741 thumbnail mikeliss thumbnail more... エコーの儚き目的 The Transient Purpose of Echo 02:37 / 03:36 Digital Album Streaming + Download Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app. You own this Send as Gift 1. スーパーナチュラル・ミキシング・デスク Supernatural Mixing Desk 05:47 2. エコーの儚き目的 The Transient Purpose of Echo 03:36 buy track 3. 現実とは反対に In Opposite Reality 05:12 4. 奇妙な秋 Strange Autumn 04:22 5. 未知なるもののラジカルな形態 Radical Forms of the Unknown 05:43 6. ダブの原型 Archetypes in Dub 05:20 7. ブロークン・ドリーム・テープ・サチュレーション Broken Dream Tape Saturation 04:30 about Something special on Nightwind records: Last December Danny Wolfers met up with Japansese digital dub legend Taka Noda aka Mystica Tribe to produce this Far East style heavy digital dub album. Custom made lo-fi oozing echo effects transform synthesizers and drummachines into a comforting mist of arcane sludge, laced with Taka Noda's enchanting melodica playing.

What is the sound of the Russian dub? There is a storied history of attempts to adapt roots music to Russian soil, but most of them can be attributed to reggae (the so-called ‘northern’ variety) rather than dub. Gost has a history with the town of Smolensk. It’s home to Gamayun, whose great album Filterealism was released on our label last year. Now Anton, one of Gamayun’s members, presents his new duo Dubovaya Kolesnitsa (The Oaken Chariot). In his words, it has no connection to his other band at all and is an attempt to go back to the roots of a genre that doesn’t truly exist. The Russian word for oak, ‘dub,’ looks exactly like the genre, and the chariot emerged from the name for the group’s jams – ‘telega’ – which can be translated as a cart. All the music here is the result of live improvisations: no samples, just instruments (notably Vasiliy Shilov's bass). These recordings have been slightly edited, and even the almost indecipherable texts are freestyle. There’s no place for real riddims in Russian dub: sometimes this record sounds like something akin to dub variations on underground Russian hip hop (and we mean that in the best possible way). We should also remember that dub and reggae (and hip hop as well) all started as the voice of people. The voice of those who are always in the minority and try not to be silent. The most prominent dub producers and reggae performers were against hierarchy, imperialism, and colonialism — and their music was born out of the desire to protest against it. As Anton puts it, Oaken Chariot, the “Russian mutation of dub,” is an attempt of voicing the concern. And he links this attempt to a historic Russian tradition of Foolishness for Christ, also known as yurodstvo. The “fool” in question is not naïve at all; he’s trying to seem lunatic on purpose. For Anton, the music of Oaken Chariot is a rebellion with a cut-off tongue. Here, illegible speech, full of inarticulate sounds, is a sign of the inability of the statement. But this inability represents a statement itself that is inevitable. Yet, the music of Oaken Chariot is genuinely fun, free, and mesmerizing (like the happenings of holy “fools”), but we could also approach it more conceptually. Theoretician Michael E. Veal describes dub as a ‘postsong’, taking the form of “linguistic, formal and symbolic indeterminacy.” The duo’s faintly eerie compositions call back to the notion of musical hauntology. There is an attempt, without any direct references, to reconstruct the feeling of something that was never there at all. A little nostalgic and very forward-thinking at the same time, the music of Oaken Chariot is best described in its own words. In the opening track, a voice can be heard saying “eto delo v lob,” which means something like “it’s a straight-on thing.” This is very direct, almost in the vein of folk music. This is a great – and, it must be said, successful – experiment in searching for the soul of Russian dub. Simple as that.

Domestic Exile warmly welcome the return of Grim Lusk, coming full circle to follow up 2018’s ‘SUNP0101’ after releasing under their Dip Friso and Sunny Balm aliases in the interim. ‘Diving Pool’ is a hallucinogenic concoction of marshy, aquatic, oscillated dubs and skittering, microtonal beat experiments. Grim Lusk's signature production style is in full effect, often occupying some liminal space nearing offbeat discordancy, but beautifully pulling together on the brink. Gelatinous machine funk rhythms and sweet, syrupy dub bass ooozing with a vibrant convergence of bright psychedelic greens, yellows and oranges, akin to bubbling sulphur pools and lava lakes, are present throughout the 6 tracks; Nuovo takes late 80’s drum machine patterns and twists them up with rough-cut vocal chops and long-form sampling of a 60’s film on the first iteration of ‘​​Il Gruppo”. Striding into the turbulent sea, Partans is kept jovial by rim shots, cymbals and snares fed back over the forward bass buzz. Not Enough is a bizarre, primordial, stretched-out gloop sludge half-speed version of the B-side track Too Much, twisted into new rhythmic territory by an off-kilter breakbeat sample. Diving Pool takes crushed, bouncing drum machines and loop-focussed experimentation to find incidental interplay between the two, whilst somehow retaining ebullient make-you-movable gusto. Angular rhythm and zealous sample manipulation seep through in Too Much, live drums patched, extrapolated and pulled further out in the mix, where jump cuts between familiar vocal chops and distorted tape delay contort manically- a warped, swinging echo of Slum Village's ‘I Don’t Know’. Wazoo rounds things out with the most club-leaning moment of the record, a saturated, throbbing atmosphere hanging over a beat-up, lurching drum sample layered with malleable pitched percussion and fuzz guitar. Peculiar shapes, fragmented shards of rhythmic patterns, crushed, crystallised snares, and congealed, jelly-like dubs; the music embodies a sense of carefree fun and playfulness, where dissolving layers of organic echoes, warm, slippery reverbs, and expansive phaser EFX stretch out into nebulous space…

Following the reissues of Pub's beloved early classics "Summer" and "Do You Regret Pantomime?" comes a generous EP of new material. Thankfully the euphoric ambient trance / dub pulse hasn't weakened at all: it's like he never went away. Just in time for fall, Ampoule takes a break from the reissue program to put out the first new material we've heard from Pub in what seems like forever. 'Autumn' plays like a direct continuation of the throbbing hypnotics we last heard on 2001's enduring "Do You Regret Pantomime?" - far more so than Pub's later releases like 2006's gloomy "Sekatuo Ton" and 2012's drifting "Creid", for example. Pub's production, though, has been dragged into a new era, and sounds brighter than ever: the title track brittle and fictile - it's the same old Pub, but with a fresh lick of paint and a nice pink bow. Other than the sound quality, the general musical mode is pretty much unchanged; Pub's distinct blend of arpeggiated analog trance, Chain Reaction dub sonix and THC-laced horizontalism still gives us that floating feeling we had when we heard 'Vilees Wideoo' or 'Summer'. 'Fall in Leaves' absorbs an 'Analogue Bubblebeath' level of oddness, with detuned synths and skittering, spring reverb-drenched beats, a mode that's extended on the record's most generous track - the 12-minute 'Bubble Folder'. It's the most upfront Pub's ever been, wiped clean of any production muck almost glittering in the sunlight, shifting from frangible electro to pulsing, inverted ambience and into key-stepped beat music before sparkling into silence. 'Essence' is the clear high point though, with drums stripped completely to allow Pub's familiar cascading arpeggios to take pride of place. Captivating electronic music that reminds us of simpler times.

"For the very first time, ITDR spaceship travels back in time to unearth 4 tracks from 'Genuine' (aka Chris Zippel) finest productions originally released on Ninetysix sounds in 1997. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of this project, 'Nu Ambient Grooves' is the ultimate mindtrip experience for downtempo, IDM and TB-303 lovers."

First Babe Roots album perfectly executed. This is the perfect balance between dub structures and reggae rhythms. Album composed and produced by Babe Roots in Berlin (DE) and Turin (IT) between 2013 and 2016. Mastered by Mathieu Berthet at Berthet Mastering Paris. Artwork by Miranda. 12" 180gr black vinyl.

Pole is the project of ground-breaking electronic musician Stefan Betke. The new album Fading is the first since 2015’s Wald. As with every new Pole record, it’s part of a continued forward trajectory but it also connects to a pre-existing sonic framework. “Every Pole record connects to recordings that I've made before,” Betke says, “in order to stay in this kind of vertical development. The ideas from 1, 2, 3 [his groundbreaking first three albums] up to now are connected. I keep the interesting elements, languages and vocabulary that I designed and add new elements.” Fading follows the physical released on Mute of remastered versions of his iconic albums 1, 2, 3 to much acclaim.

" The Three Lives return with Across & Beyond, a 5 track EP taking their digi-dub explorations to unexpected dimensions. "

It's impossible to think about 'dub' without thinking about the late Osbourne Ruddock - the great King Tubby, the singular most creative human being of the great many who've plied their trade behind a mixing desk in the name of reggae since the early 1970s. Dub may well have existed before Tubbs raised its profile to almost unimaginable heights, and it has continued to exist in the 21 years since he was senselessly slain in 1989.

Pecker, a percussionist who created Japan's first salsa band, Orquesta del Sol, created "Pecker Power," Japan's first dub album in 1980, and originally released on a 10-inch disc, "Instant Rasta," and Ryojiro Furusawa's "Moonlight Slumber," also featuring Minako Yoshida, were added to the original "Instant Rasta" and released in 12-inch format!

Side A
A1 BEGGAR SUITE（Part1）
A2 BEGGAR SUITE（Part2）
A3 BEGGAR SUITE（Part3）
A4 DUB JAM ROCK

Side B
B1 KYLYN
B2 MOONLIGHT SLUMBER

As we continue with our 7" series and for the 6th edition we welcome back the Dublin native Sabab in quick succession with 'Spirit Of Sewa' b/w 'Empty Pocket Dub'

Om Unit surprises us with a second volume of his 'Acid Dub Studies' project, once again fusing his love for the 303 with studio techniques given to us by musical heroes such as King Tubby, Adrian Sherwood, Jammys and Basic Channel

This second volume further solidifies the convincing narrative created by its best-selling predecessor, heading in a more groove-based direction in places whilst being underpinned by the same sonic narrative that has been enjoyed by many music fans from a variety of different spheres for the past 18 months or so

Support so far for the Acid Dub Studies project has come from many corners including some of the most highly respected names in UK Radio such as Don Letts and Steve Barker, Benji B and Tom Ravenscroft as well as a whole host of truly global worldwide underground support both via radio and in the dance

Om Unit says of this record: 'I felt encouraged by the sheer love for the original selection of works to go back in again and continue to experiment with this approach to writing whilst refining some of the process. Being able to combine processes and influence has been the mainstay of my creative life and I hope this next volume of Acid Dub will be enjoyed by everyone who was a fan of the first'

The beloved 303 bassline continues to inspire every new generation and Acid Dub Studies II is another storybook of sound in that vast continuum that shows no sign of slowing down

Jim Coles once again turns the tide towards a new horizon and travels further into the echo chamber. Leading on from the much-lauded ‘Secret Location’ mini-album with Seekersinternational, one-offs such as ‘Open Palms dub’ (Dub Stuy) and other teasings, ‘Acid Dub Studies’ is the fully-fledged result of the merging of the calligraphic expression of the 303 Acid bassline with the stern sway of Dub Reggae and the hazier edges of Dub Techno and Ambient music.

For those who have been paying close attention, this project will come as a welcome return to the vulnerability and playfulness of early Om Unit records such as his sub-radar single from 2010 ‘Lightgrids/Lavender’ (All City Records) or the unearthed chugging ambience of ‘Friend of Day’ (Idle Hands) and indeed in some sense draws from similar wellsprings as moments on 2013’s Bass classic ‘Threads’.

Whilst being perhaps an ‘interim project’ this is still a vital and important expression of exploration and playfulness. A study in the true sense and borne out of a subtle but pervasive frustration with the rigidity found in musical words he has up to now been cohabiting, Acid Dub Studies comes from the pressing need to break with perceived expectation and to explore an honest and natural space away from the genre labels and tags that had been often lazily applied to his sizeable catalogue of music.

With no desire to reinvent the wheel, rather to paint pictures in an honest framework, the LP was crafted using a medley of classic analogue mixing techniques inspired as much by the adventurous dubbing of Adrian Sherwood as by the inward-delving haze of Scott Monteith’s Deadbeat project. Created during a period of lonely introspective walks through his home town of Bristol, the cover art is a photograph of some of the iron kerbstones that are found almost exclusively in the characterful and hardy city which were installed in the late 1800’s to protect pavements from cart wheels. Something about the permanence of those iron slabs and cobblestones inspired a sense of comfort and determination.

Acid Dub Studies is due for release as yet another self-released label-free project leading on from recent EP titles ‘Violet’ and ‘Submerged’ both of which hinted at some of the shapes found in this full length album.

Once again Jim has shown a rare convincing adaptability that few electronic artists can embody. Another step on the journey of personal and creative curiosity that fans are sure to appreciate. 

Lavender Palace is a portrait of a process more than a place – the result of a creative headspace San Francisco producer (and Silva Electronics boss) Michael Claus describes as “dropping out of the world and entering a flow state.” That heightened sense of spatial focus, dilated and dialed in, colors the collection in subtle shades of dream house, dub techno, and liquid downtempo. Recorded before and during the strangest days of peak lockdown, Claus found himself drawn to sci-fi notions of fantastical cities and mythic landscapes, hazy realms in the horizon of the mind’s eye. Further inspired by a new and improved studio arrangement in the city, the sessions unspooled in long, low-slung voyages of texture and pulse, restlessness and reverie, “yearning for a better tomorrow.” It’s music of empty streets and guarded hope, percolating at the precipice of futures too real to recognize.

Human Pitch is proud to welcome Seoul-based duo Salamanda to the label for the release of their third LP ashbalkum - a portal into unseen worlds, enchanting stasis, & laughter in the face of our evolving realities. Across an effervescent 39 minute runtime, ashbalkum provides a spellbinding view into how we interact with the world around us - one where one’s own being, language, & nature itself are all rendered infinitely mutable.

Written during the surrealist landscape of summer 2021 somewhere between a sweet dream & a beautiful nightmare, ashbalkum accesses a playful tranquility that mirrors our tumultuous present - distantly intimate, static & constantly changing, moving while standing still, all the while narrowly evading the pressures of our pre-apocalyptic world looming just overhead. Through their collaborative energy steeped in joy, friendship, & experimentation, Salamanda transports us towards even further surreality - taking their sound to wholly new frontiers  while aiming to just have fun creating together & living presently.

ashbalkum’s namesake stems from symbolic & phonetic reinterpretation - specifically, a Korean phrase for the realization that what you’ve been experiencing as “reality” is actually a dream. The transmutation of this humorous existentialism into new meaning forms the core of ashbalkum - blissfully maneuvering through life, basking in irreverent states of lucidity, & attuning all frequencies to fellow dreamers within the dream.

Do dreams always reflect what we think? Is what we feel within dreams real?

Ultimately, Salamanda don’t seek to answer these questions, so much as revel in the delightful liminality of it all.

This is the long-awaited debut album from the mysterious producer Pretty Sneaky, who has been releasing singles on her own label under the same name as "Mana," which has been distributing high-profile releases from Luc Ferrari and Nicolas Jaar under the distribution by Honest Jons. This is a double-pack from an up-and-coming producer who is rumored to be an alias of SHED, who has been releasing only stamped label albums with no information at all, and is also known for his work on Ostgut Ton and Delsin. This is a good release that showcases his lustrous dub techno/ambient sound amidst the tropical scent of birdsong and nature sounds collected from the jungle. Mastered and cut by Duplates & Mastering. Mastered and cut by Duplates & Mastering. Artwork by Matthew Kent, the label's owner.

Ejigayehu Shibabaw was born in 1974 in Chagni, northwestern Ethiopia and by pursuing a career as a singer, went against her father’s strict, traditional gender roles. As Gigi, she embraced the same musical freedom she had strived for in her personal life, incorporating the Ethiopian church, funk, hip-hop, West and South African music into her work. She first settled in Nairobi, then Addis Ababa, where she quickly established herself as one of the city’s leading singers. A move to San Francisco in 1998 led to a long and fruitful creative partnership with bassist and producer Bill Laswell. 

Around the same time, Chris Blackwell had stepped away from Island Records to start the art house film company and label Palm Pictures. He took an interest in Gigi and together with Laswell, pulled together an all-star cast of musicians for her self-titled US debut album, including Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter. It won international critical acclaim, not just for its musicianship but for making Gigi a “defining voice for the Ethiopian expatriate community”, as journalist Tyran Grillo praises in his Time Capsule liner notes. From the nation-defining 1896 victory over Italian invaders to the quiet revolutionaries who wear simple shemma garments, Grillo believes the themes in Gigi make it “a shower of sunlight on her homeland for those ignorant of its struggles.” 

After its success, Blackwell encouraged them to go back into the studio to rethink the album and Illuminated Audio was born. “Anyone can make a voice sound worldly”, Grillo remarks, “but rare are those who can make one sound inner-worldly.” Gigi was clear with Laswell to give her vocals a minor role “because it’s already been done.” Instead her Amharic verse is fleeting, exhaling through the textures like ghostly fragments; soaring yet muted. Yet the album is still titled under her name, an assertion by Laswell of her central role in the album’s creation. Not only was it a fully endorsed project by Gigi, but she would be present throughout its development, giving feedback on half-finished ideas as Laswell played them back in the studio. “It works perfectly”, she reflected after the album’s release. “We wanted to capture the whole spirit of each track, and Bill’s remixes create a different music language that really puts you in a pleasant place”. 

This new vocabulary takes its lead from a technical approach that Laswell had been perfecting during a furtive creative period at the turn of the millennium. Much like his ambient interpretations of Miles Davis (Panthalassa, 1998), Bob Marley (Dreams of Freedom, 1997), and Carlos Santana (Divine Light, 2001), Laswell approached Illuminated Audio by returning to the original multitrack masters. Gigi wasn’t just reworked, but recomposed into an expansive lattice of instruments, submerged in a watery ambience of dub and trance undercurrents. 

Sonically, this new language that Gigi refers to, is manifested by the original album’s more understated parts being pushed to the fore. Explaining his contrasting methods, Laswell saw Gigi as being “put together in a way that fits”. Contrastingly, in Illuminated Audio, “a lot of things that I featured in the remix weren’t as audible in the original.” Instrumentation laying near-dormant, deep in the mix, are brought to the fore: the acid rock guitar and Wayne Shorter’s saxophone on ‘Tew Ante Sew’, Graham Haynes’ flugelhorn on ‘Nafekeñ’, Laswell’s bass on ‘Kahn’, the melodica in Mengedegna or the floating synths and talking drums in ‘Gud Fella’. 

Brought to his attention by mentor DJ Nori, Hidaka describes Illuminated Audio as a “masterful sonic exploration into ethereal ambience and dub” and made sure this reissue also contained a full remaster to give its “deep musicality” much better dynamics and density in the overall sound. Hidaka admits that Laswell’s music “is sometimes so out-there, it is often misunderstood” and, indeed, to dub album non-believers this might seem like a prolific producer imposing himself on another artist’s work; eternally developing rearrangements that never quite get to its destination. But that’s missing its true power and triumph. This is more than the reissue of a remix, but “a wholly unique musical entity”, as Hidaka describes. Illuminated Audio refers to the illuminated manuscripts that comprise the major part of Ethiopian art and its new compositions stand in proud solitude as a rare body of reworks that both informs and enhances their originals.  

Horace Andy has always commanded a place high on the list of reggae singers from Jamaica. His distinctive, haunting vocal style stands strong on any rhythm, song, or style he chooses to cover. He has managed to crossover to a new generation of listeners due to his individual style, helped also by his collaborations with the likes of Massive Attack. Born Horace Hinds in 1951, Kingston Jamaica, he began his musical career at Coxsonne Dodd's Studio One. So impressed with the young Horace, Coxsonne decided on a name change and named him after his top songwriter at the time, Bob Andy. His first tune for Coxsonne ("Something on My Mind") was a slow burner in Jamaica, but his belief in his young protégé paid off later with "Skylarking," a tune that put the singer all over the radios and sound systems of Jamaica. After numerous singles and two albums worth of material, Horace moved on to work with many of the topflight Jamaican producers, among them Keith Hudson, Augustus Pablo, and Niney the Observer, but it was his work with producer Bunny Lee in the '70s that produced most of his hits, which we have compiled for this set. Some of his late '60s classics are recut in the popular 1970s style, working with the rhythm kings themselves, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. They have added some shine to "Something on My Mind" and "Skylarking" and made them hits all over again. Horace also adds his signature to covers of Delroy Wilson's version of the Tams's "Riding for a Fall," the Heptones' "My Guiding Star," John Holt's "Man Next Door," and Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine." A bass-heavy cut of Bob Marley's "Natural Mystic" is also present. This fine set of 1970s classics represents some of the best music ever made in Jamaica.

Augustus Pablo’s unique sound which was created around playing what could  best be described as a child’s musical toy the Melodica ,it made him a very popular session player in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.It was not only his unique talent of playing this instrument but also his talents on the piano and the keyboard. Pablo worked on a varied number of sessions for all the top Jamaican producers, but especially for King Tubby at his studio in the heart of the Waterhouse district of Kingston, Jamaica. Augustus Pablo (b. Horace Swaby, 1954, St Andrew, Jamaica) cut his musical teeth with producer Herman Chin – Lo in 1969, with his first record ‘Iggy Iggy’. His second cut for the producer was to be the timeless ‘East of the River Nile’ which carried that haunting Far-Eastern feel that in many ways became his signature sound. We have concentrated for this release on his sessions at King Tubby’s studio where over a stream of producer Bunny Lee’s rhythms, Pablo’s talents were required. Rhythms that Bunny had already cut at the various other studio’s around Kingston, for example, Channel 1 where he had recorded his cut to the’ Declaration of Rights’ rhythm. Randy’s Studio 17, where he recorded Horace Andy’s version of Bill Wither’s ‘ Ain’t No Sunshine’. To Dynamic Sounds studio, used for Delroy Wilson’s ‘Cool Operator’ , Errol Dunkley’s‘ Black Cinderella’ and John Holt’s ‘Clock On The Wall’. Even back to Coxonne Dodd’s Studio 1 for Alton Ellis’s ‘I’m Just A Guy’. Bunny’s vast set of master tapes, which he stored at King Tubby’s studio, were available to voice over or remix when the occasion should arise. Pablo was recruited on many occasions to add his magic to tracks both as a Melodica player and for additional piano and keyboards. These tracks in many cases would be used for the flip version side of the release that Bunny and Tubby were working on. We have compiled a set of rhythms that have King Tubby and Phillip Smart at the controls and Augustus Pablo adding his musical flavour to the mix to make what we believe a great album. Hope you enjoy the set…….