Tag: dub

Hotcakes, Wildfire, Shoes…. and Acid!

In the dead of night sounds in a rural environment are resonating singularities, a car in the distance or the farmer calling his herd. In an urban environment it’s a cacophony, a mesh of motorways, trains and factories. Living in either you become accustomed, but to change can take adjusting. To accommodate the increase of clamour, when I first moved from a village to be neighbours with a cheesy nightclub in Swindon, we drained the noise outside with the 1990 KLF album “Chill Out.” Prior to being bound for Mu Mu Land with Tammy Wynette, they created an ambient soundscape which rarely provided a beat. I am reminded of this, and other vague but fond memories while listening to The Hotcakes of Wildfire’s four track EP, Shoes and Acid….

Released last week, Shoes and Acid is the brainchild of Mick Stanger, guitarist for Bradford-on-Avon scrumpy & western outfit The Boot Hill All Stars and presenter of Sounds of the Wilderness on West Wilts Radio, a show where Mick uncovers a variety of experimental locally-sourced tracks. Alongside him are engineers Alex Pilkington and Leo Hossent, Boot Hill and Monkey Bizzle drummer Cerys Brocklehurst, with synths, guitars and vocals by Rat Himself, additional vocals by Holly Taylor and a fiddle from Ruth Behan. A different line-up from the 2022 debut single War of Words, whereby Mick thrashes out a tongue-in-cheek Scrabble war over grinding metal guitars, and a very different sound too; virtually horizontal dancing in places!

If I’m reminded of Chill Out, and stealthily manoeuvring through a jungle of guy-ropes and tent pegs across Glastonbury Festival like a missionary expedition, while The Orb rang out subtle harmonies like the call of the natives in the ether, it’s because I’m of that era. Factually, there’s been meditative and relaxing moods in all genres from classical and jazz to new age whale song or electronic kosmische. The beauty in Shoes and Acid seems to be that these Hotcakes nod to them all, or if not all, at least since the prog-rock of Zeppelin and Floyd, and exhausts them nonchalantly unique and punkish.

It’s a lo-fi soundscape opening with birdsong, but Stubentiger kicks in agreeably backwards like the intro to Electric Ladyland, and rolls out a pungent bass guitar riff akin to Frome’s Ozric Tentacles’ finest hour; it’s at this early moment I figure I’m in for an enjoyable if hypnotic ride; pass my meds. Four extended tracks is all it takes to knock up about forty minutes of expressive outpourings, largely instrumental and influenced by many soothing musical styles. I’m not sure if shoes are a requirement, but acid wouldn’t go a miss, it’s a trip.

Second tune Knocking at the Tree has whimsical female vocals conflicting with devilish male vocals, a drifting prog-folk-rock track wisping and earthy; a Westcountry Clannad with a sprinkle of Hawkwind. But if the prog-rock element continues into the eleven minute beauty, Fever Dream, it becomes very Ozric Tentacles, and like my favourite tune of theirs The Domes of G’Bal, it takes on dub reggae. Being that I’m fascinated by the studio adventures of King Tubby yet irked somewhat with dubstep, I’m most at home here, a contemporary Orb’s Towers of Dub which could convert Lee Anderson into a crusty traveller! 

Fever Dream is the summit, an outstanding and epic moment in the album. A final track awaits us, now embedded in a horizontal dream like state imagining fractals forming in the sky. Tardigrades is another eleven-minute sonic exploration, beginning ambient house, Eat Static is expected but it doesn’t venture into trance-techno, rather it builds in layers like Leftfield but takes a space-rock angle with Holly’s vocals in the driving seat after five minutes of swirling spacey soundscape.

A gorgeous finale to a great third eye opening listen, which doesn’t appear to care if you’re coming at it from a Hawkwind or Orb direction. I’m just pleased to know there’s still folk out there producing soothing yet psychedelic ambient music on an astral plane, and this rolls a joint up for you and tucks you into a blissful slumber! 

Swindon’s Silver-Star Teams Up With General Levy to Motivate Swindon!

I’m loving this new tune! Swindon’s upcoming reggae singer/DJ Silver-Star has teamed up with the legendary General Levy for a drum n bass golden nugget called “Put Me Down,” with a video filmed on locations in Swindon and Highworth. The aim is to motivate people and promote Swindon town….

What a grand start for Silver-Star, to team up with Levy, his smooth vocals over the legendary toaster, but there’s more going on here than first meets the eye. Over a ragga-drum n bass roller the two contrast perfectly, but it’s no mindless banger, there’s a sunny side of the street against all odds narrative, encouraged by the brilliantly inspiring accompanying video, set in various locations across the town.

It shows the struggle with everyday issues and holds a message to rise above them, yet it retains a beguiling hook you simply have to bounce to! Eye of a tiger, it’s a local reggae Rocky!!

Do check it out, follow SilverStar on Instagram and, most importantly subscribe to his YouTube channel. I look forward to seeing more from this emerging artist, and wonder if he can top this!!

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Rooks; New Single From M3G

Chippenham folk singer-songwriter, M3G (because she likes a backward “E”) has a new single out tomorrow, Friday 19th December. Put your jingly bell cheesy tunes…

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Barry Ashworth of Dub Pistols to Play DJ Set at The Muck & Dunder, Devizes

Barry Ashworth, one half of the mighty big beat pioneers The Dub Pistols is heading to Devizes in November for a DJ set at our fantastic Caribbean holiday at home rum bar, The Muck & Dunder….

Dance music in the UK came of age in the mid-nineties. Subgenres blossomed from the rave scene, but left maturing ravers adrift. Appeasing an upcoming generation, ‘hardcore’ rave separated into “happy” and jungle, while house music began to get tiresome. It was, as it ever is, up to the UK to progress dance music, and they’d use the indigenous breakbeat house, a fusion of hip hop and reggae.

What Coldcut, the Prodigy, Norman Cook, and acts like the Chemical Brothers laid down next was a phenomenon, naturally, the next stage, and filled a gap. Big Beat would accommodate our love of hip hop and dub reggae, fuse them into a universal party style. This is where The Dub Pistols fit into the story.

Formed as a DJ duo around 1996 in London, Barry, and Jason O’Bryan, created a fluctuating collective and began recording tracks by 1998. No strangers to Wall of Sound, The Social and Brighton’s grounding, The Dub Pistols are prolific, amassing seven studio albums to date, and working on numerous film and video game soundtracks.

Aside my Uncle Albert moment, what we can expect from The Dub Pistols isn’t akin to my retrospective waffling, though Jason left the collective fourteen years ago, Barry and the band has continued to progress the sound to suit contemporary dance music, collaborating with UK rappers like Rodney P, and remixing tracks from Ian Brown, Limp Bizkit and The Crystal Method.

I think we’re in good hands for a large night, and again, The Muck & Dunder bucks the Devizes stalwarts of particular musical genres to provide us with quality dance music acts. The Dub Pistols’ Barry Ashworth comes to The Muck on Friday 8th November. Tickets are not available yet. Follow them on social media for updates, I’ll share the news on ours or pop into Muck for a Piña Colada or three; you’re worth it!

Skanking Up The Muck with The Omega Nebula

What an electric and energetic night of dub-fuelled goodness at the Muck & Dundar in Devizes, with Omega Nebula; I need a historical rewind to express how much, and why, I loved it!   

The Omega Nebula is between five to six thousand lightyears away, so I’m glad they came to us, as I was on foot, but it surely was an unmissable night in town. Now, I know you know I know you know I Googled that for the sake of the joke, I’m not professor Brian Cox. But what I can adlib is this: in 1989 Osbourne Ruddock was shot outside his home in Kingston, Jamaica. The gunman made off with his gold chain and gun, but the world lost a music pioneer, known as King Tubby.

King Tubby

What has any of this got to do with the tropical holiday-at-home Devizes rum bar The Muck & Dunder you may well ask to bid I quit waffling! I’m getting to it! For in an interim period between ska and reggae known as rock steady, where brass sections waned in favour of more economical vocal harmonies, Tubby noted people danced to the instrumental breaks. With this simple notion, his sound system and experimental sound engineering techniques created dub.

Tubby’s echo delays, erratic pitch changes, and techniques like “rolling the stone,” which predates drum n bass by twenty years, became the blueprints of modern pop. His influence on Kool Herc alone is definitive; a Jamaican immigrant to New York, who, fusing it with funk and disco, would create hip hop, the rest cascades from this point. Hence why the dub style of Omega Nebula was so thoroughly accepted and enjoyed by, mostly, conventional millennials last night, rather than the niche subgenre which has, for the past few decades, been recognised as a steady plod and penchant for the crusty hippy types. But, there’s more to it than this.

Bristol husband and wife duo, Omega Nebula, play to steppers riddims, with all the offbeats, one drops and Tubby’s dub effects, pre-dubstep, yet cherry pick dubstep elements to retain a certain freshness. They turn dubstep on its head with these nostalgic dub traditions; it’s a win-win formula. 

See, dancehall may chant “rewind” but reggae rarely looks back, it faces progression head on, often fiercely competitive to create the next sound. I love reggae for this neverending development, but for me, personally, of a certain age I find it difficult to take dubstep underwing. I’m stuck, groundhog day, in a bygone era whereby the trance-techno fusion of Zion Train and Dreadzone was my final frontier, at least I thought so until last night.

Talking final frontiers, I could suitably review last night at the Muck & Dunder as Mr Spock from Star Trek! “There’s a sonic pulse coming from the nebula, Captain, transmogrificating into kinetic energy upon interaction with organic life!” That kinetic energy was felt by all in attendance, it didn’t matter if you were the ageing hippy like me, or youthful enough to acknowledge Little Mix as influential! What Omega Nebula has crafted is simple yet incredibly beguiling, as is reggae in general.

Steppers remains the most upbeat of reggae drum patterns, ergo the Muck jumped, the vocals chanted encouragement, like an MC, yet were as beautifully delivered as dancehall greats Sister Nancy or Lady Saw. The result was the whole vibe was energetically stimulating, contemporary throughout with this nod to the traditions of dub; a truly lovely recipe, which made for a truly wonderful occasion.

But the bottom line is the most important, and that being, perhaps Omega Nebula is groundbreaking, or perhaps they’re simply part of a bigger and blossoming scene in cities like Bristol, neither way matters when you’re an old nutter living in the sticks. I’m not so far gone that I’m unaware of Glasgow’s Mungos HiFi or the Gentleman’s Dub Club from Leeds, but fear I’d do myself injury clubbing as I once did! Here in Devizes it’s something altogether different, and it was immensely well received. For which, again, we find ourselves saluting the Muck & Dunder, and to James Threlfall for suggesting them, who, incidentally DJ’d through to the end, for bringing us such diverse acts in such a hospitable and attractive setting, with piña coladas and rum cocktails to die for; I don’t care if it’s November in Blighty, when in Rome…..!!

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For Now, Anyway; Gus White’s Debut Album

Featured Image: Barbora Mrazkova My apologies, for Marlborough’s singer-songwriter Gus White’s debut album For Now, Anyway has been sitting on the backburner, and it’s more…

One Of Us; New Single From Lady Nade

Featured Image by Giulia Spadafora Ooo, a handclap uncomplicated chorus is the hook in Lady Lade’s latest offering of soulful pop. It’s timelessly cool and…

Large Unlicensed Music Event Alert!

On the first day of advent, a time of peace and joy to the world et al, Devizes Police report on a “large unlicenced music…

Winter Festival/Christmas/Whatever!

This is why I love you, my readers, see?! At the beginning of the week I put out an article highlighting DOCA’s Winter Festival, and…

Who Are The Eskimo Nebula, Appearing at The Muck?

Okay, clever clogs among us I’m sure will tell me the Eskimo Nebula is a bipolar double-shell planetary nebula, 6,500 light-years away which is surrounded by gas making it resemble a person’s head surrounded by a parka hood, hence its name. I knew that already and didn’t need you to tell me, or Wikipedia, honest, but I’m talking closer to home; the Bristol dub duo due to skank up Devizes on the 11th November. Quit the astronomical smalltalk, pass me a piña colada, there’s a good chap, we’re off to The Muck!

Yo, gotta love the Muck & Dunder, it’s like being on a Caribbean holiday right here in Devizes. I kinda fell out of there scanning the Brittox sulking, oh, it was just a dream, I’m not maxing relaxing on Mullins Bay. But more to the point, they bring us diversity to our music scene, and I don’t mean a dance troupe. We’ve seen the likes of The Allergies, The Scribes, and Gardna, we’ve bore witness to sporadic salsa street dancing outbreaks, but, it’s a rum bar, we need reggae.

This one, I believe, is down to our resident Vernon Kay and all-around good guy skateboarder, James Threlfall, who likely won’t speak to me for weeks after that quip(!) as he’s featured Eskimo Nebula on his BBC Introducing in the West show, and for the record I love Vernon, it was a compliment. Thank you, James, Stuart and Shelly, for bringing them to the Muck, because I hadn’t heard of them, thought I was a nilly know-it–all about reggae, took one listen online and was like, that’s up my street knocking loudly on my door.


Their agents, Diplomats of Sound, describe them thus: “Eskimo Nebula are a husband and wife electronic duo, taking influence from Jamaican and UK sound system culture. Their music is a blend of hard hitting dub, high spirited reggae and powerful bass, all brought together by their own joyfully uplifting and recognisable sound. Multi-instrumentalists Adjua and Dean Forrest, who together fronted eight piece reggae outfit Backbeat Soundsystem on Easy Star Records, have joined forces to pursue their passion for electronic production. Their show is a live/electronic hybrid performance, where you can expect a dynamic fusion of synthesisers, dub sirens, huge bass, live instruments, killer vocals and trippy effects.”

“Revered for having a captivating stage presence and for connecting with the audience on a deep level, Esikmo Nebula will leave you inspired, empowered and energised. With continuous support from BBC DJ’s including reggae legend David Rodigan on BBC 1Xtra, this exciting new project is speedily on the rise and their live show is not to be missed!”

Nuff said, if it’s good enough for good ol’ Rodigan, it’s good enough for me, and as for the rest of you, I’ll drop some YouTube and links below to convince you to join me, tickets are a brown one, get ’em HERE.

Subject A Takes us to Paradise

What’s four years between releasing new material?! We fondly reviewed Subject A’s album Writer’s Eyes back in 2019; they’ve a new single out this week, and it’s worth the wait….

The brainchild of Swindon’s finest purveyors of everything offbeat, pianist Erin Bardwell and bassist Dean Sartain, Subject A is the experimental dub project you need to take heed of. This new double A starts with a mellowed and gorgeous electronica dub track, Paradise. Much in the vein of Massive Attack and the nineties Bristol trip hop scene, with the definite nod to reggae, as in what Oxford’s Zaia are putting out. So, equally as we’re geographically in between Bristol and Oxford, so too is this uniquely Swindon sound!

Starter for ten is the ambience of this aptly named tune, provided through a firm collective of Rachael Birkin’s Viola, Harki Popli’s Tabla (who we know from Will LawtonandtheAlchemists,) and these dreamy vocals and flute of Heather O’Neill; the result is sublime. Add regular drummer Matty Bane to Erin’s keys and Dean’s bass, and all you need to complete the effect is subtle brass, a trumpet, provided by Colin Berry.

The final track is a dub of Paradise, which levels up the reggae tip, reminding me of when the Mad Professor went to work on Massive Attack’s albums. But nestled in-between is an outside chance called The Bottle, a gem of upbeat ska-fuelled dub, perhaps more Mungo’s Hi-Fi than Massive Attack, but most certainly a nod back to their Two-Tone roots; this is the Specials in modern day format, it skanks, it’s irresistibly danceable, and with vocals by Neil Sartain it simply has that floorfiller appeal and shows the diversity of Subject A. Recoded at Earthworm, this is a peach!

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Devizes Winter Festival This Friday and More!

Who’s ready for walking in the winter wonderland?! Devizes sets to magically transform into a winter wonderland this Friday when The Winter Festival and Lantern…

Snow White Delight: Panto at The Wharf

Treated to a sneaky dress rehearsal of this year’s pantomime at Devizes’ one and only Wharf Theatre last night, if forced to sum it up…

Chatting With Burn The Midnight Oil

It’s nice to hear when our features attract attention. Salisbury’s Radio Odstock  picked up on our interview with Devizes band Burn the Midnight Oil and…

Thirty Years in the Dreadzone

Dreadzone, the Phoenix rising from the ashes of Big Audio Dynamite’s success, when drummer Greg Roberts and keyboardist Dan Donovan teamed with Julian Cope’s sound engineer Tim Bran, were the prolific electronic dance triumph of post-rave….

Owing their accomplishment to the fine blend of reggae into the contemporary melting pot of dance culture, harking back to Two-Tone yet too encompassed the burgeoning breakbeat house scene which in turn would fuel drum and bass. But Dreadzone never went there, the final piece of the jigsaw was bringing in vocalist Earl 16, and they stuck to their guns producing memorable anthems of techno-reggae dub bliss, particularly unforgettable being Little Britain sampling Carl Orff’s Auf Dem Anger.

But if you, like me, were bouncing around a muddy field like Zebedee on a day out from the magic garden to a 1937 classical symphony you might not appreciate me reminding you, Dreadzone celebrate their thirtieth anniversary this year; but it might cushion the blow by letting you know you can join the party at Frome’s Cheese & Grain on Friday 21st April.

Still in the forefront of the festival scene, in 2022, Dreadzone refocussed their show after MC Spee was forced to step back from touring and they explored different aspects of their history and catalogue ahead of their 30th anniversary this year. With a reconfigured line-up for 2023, the band’s live shows will feature core members Greg Dread and original bassmaster Leo Williams, plus legendary reggae vocalist Earl 16, as well as Bazil on technology and Blake Robert (Greg’s son) on guitar.

They have been releasing albums and progressively bettering, refining, and perfecting their own unique and inimitable take on dub since their inception in 1993. Dreadzone opened the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 1994, though if memories of that are hazy at best, I fondly recall a night at Shepard’s Bush Empire in 1995 when I was still dancing to an imaginary dubplate in the cloakroom queue!

With plans for their 30th Anniversary firmly underway, standby for a new studio album later in the year too.

Tickets are on sale now and priced at £25.00+BF, available here.

No Bad Press for Captain Accident & The Disasters

Top marks and a gold star for this album, released tomorrow, Friday 20th August; Bad Press, of which you’ll hear no such thing as bad press from me, and I’d be interested in how anyone could find an angle to do such. Yet if the title is subtle irony, more so is the band name, Captain Accident & The Disasters.

From the band name alone it’s understandable for one to perceive their output as comical or zany, but far from it. Here is some sublime, concentrated reggae and rock steady, bouncy and carefree, yes, but astutely written, covering some acute themes as well as the general tenet of rock steady; forlorn or unabridged romance. Neither am I willing to accept the talent here is any way an accident, and the band is anything but a disaster!

Twenty seconds into Bad Press is all you need to realise why David Rodigan speaks so highly of Cardiff’s Captain Accident & The Disasters, and they were invited back to tour with legends Toots & the Maytals after their 2016 UK tour, as the official full-tour support in 2017 and again in 2018. Which they did, and Captain Accident was asked to join the band onstage to perform Monkey Man on guitar. If it wasn’t for lockdown and the tragic passing of Toots Hibbert last year, they would have been on the European tour that year also.

Other than the wonderful sunshine reggae vibe, there’s not a great deal else going on in Bad Press, yet there’s no need to be. The band stick to the tried and tested formula, the mellow plod of traditional one-drop reggae, occasionally more steppers upbeat with only subtle ska or dub elements coming through. Note importantly, they do this with bells on. It doesn’t attempt to swerve off with experimentation. All tracks flow with precision and a highly polished sound produced with traditional instruments. At no time will Bad Press replicate a previous tune through dubplate principles, neither will a dancehall DJ toast over it, or a drum n bass riff be thrust unexpectedly at you; good, honest and exceptionally beautiful roots, rock reggae is what you get.

If themes reflect lovers rock or rock steady on occasion, it’s nicely done, and in others, where more sombre subject matter arises there’s no militancy, rather the longstanding carefree reggae ethos of not worrying, dancing reservations away, as every little thing will be alright. Neither does Rasta etiquettes or such biblical or cultural references come into play, making this reggae for the masses as well as aficionados. It’s just, ah, tingly, and apt for all!

Despite the band’s output, three previous albums being self-produced, their beguiling festival friendly sound has rocketed their success with a national fan-base growing by the day. I fully believe Bad Press will seal the deal.

Ten songs strong, I couldn’t pick a favourite. As I believe I said, it flows, blessing your ears with inspirational sound. In Redemption Song familiarities the content of the opening tune casts an eye on Armageddon, but pessimism doesn’t deject or depress you, and the title, “Not the End of the World,” says it all. The aforementioned carefree attitude carries over with the catchy “Best Shoes,” the upbeat melody cutting to plod as Captain Accident aptly quotes Marley, “when the music hits you, you feel no pain.”

And such is unswaying general premise throughout, returning to one-drop for the beautiful “Playing Field,” which truly showcases the writing skill on righteousness and equality. Swapping back to the common hopeless romantic theme, “Wings,” will melt you, like the referenced wings of Icarus. Followed by the most ska-ish, the buoyant “Miami Incorporating.”

There is nothing here to rightfully label this with bad press, perhaps the blithest tune being the “Dark n Stormy,” with a rum subject, there’s a real Caribbean feel, yet the most interestingly intertwined is the rock-inspired guitar previous song, “Puttin’ Up a Fight,” because it clarifies this “reggae for all,” notion I’ve attempted to convey. I hope this comes across, especially in these local parts where the genre is often misunderstood and misrepresented. If your knowledge of reggae doesn’t extend much past Bob Marley & The Wailers in their international prime, you will love this. Yet, for bods like me, a humongous enthusiast, it fills me with a glorious passion that the traditional aspects of reggae will never be lost in a sea of dancehall, reggaeton and dubstep.

Ah, they’re all worthy, to me, but aside, reggae got soul, and you NEED this album in your life!

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The Lost Trades Float on New Single

I’ve got some gorgeous vocal harmonies currently floating into my ears, as The Lost Trades release their first single since the replacement of Tamsin Quin…

Sentences I’d Like to Hear the End of, with the Bakesys

No matter the subject, a lesson is only as interesting as the teacher teaching it. Johnny Ball did the impossible, he made maths fun! Likewise, but more modern, Terry Deary’s books and subsequent CBBC show, Horrible Histories made what’s often perceived as a dull subject by pupils, somehow entertaining, amusing even. If Deary was my history teacher, rather than a thick-rimmed speccy, bearded beatnik with leather elbow patches on his tweed jacket, well, I might just have taken heed of their wisdoms.

Equally, if you want to teach history to a bunch of scooterist skinheads, consider employing The Bakesys, for they are a skanking Horrible Histories, at least for this new album, released last Thursday called Sentences I’d Like to Hear the End of.

Stu, Kevin & Bakesy onstage at Newbury College in December 1990!

Something of an elusive band despite twenty years presence on the UK ska scene, the early stages of The Bakesys reflected heavily on punk inspirations, such as the Buzzcocks, crossed with later developments of a definite Two-Tone influence. Sentences I’d Like to Hear the End of takes it to whole other level. Akin to what On-U Sound did for dub in the nineties, sprinkling in a counter culture punk ethos, The Bakesys do for ska. It’s more upbeat than the usual plod of dub, but strewn with samples, heavy basslines, and drum machine loops, it has its elements.

From another angle though, as Dreadzone meld such influences into the electronic dance scene, there’s a contemporary sound, a mesh of offbeat influences with the Bakesys, more in line with the current ska scene. The flood of brass and chugging rhythms confirms its allegiance to authentic 1960’s Jamaican ska. What comes out the end is unique beguiling buoyancy, and it’s absolutely addictive.

Yet we’re only scraping the surface of why, the theme of the album is the kingpin here. Reflecting the era of its influences, subjects are historic affairs based in the sixties. The opening title track raps of Christine Keeler and the Profumo Affair. Get Your Moonboots on is on Apollo 11’s moon landing, and the third, most haunting tune, You are Leaving the American Sector takes newsreels of the Berlin Wall. One I’ve been playing endlessly the single of on my Friday night Boot Boy radio show.

Atomic Invasion explores the Cold War, yet, as with Keeler, this sublime set of songs often concentrates more on the personalities than facts of the events. The Space Race is up next, with a nod to Yuri Gagarin’s luminary. Then it’s the Cuban Missile Crisis with the numerous failed attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, Cassius Clay’s rise to heavyweight champion of the world, and Robert F. Kennedy’s assignation.

Despite these often-dark subjects, it’s surprisingly upbeat, as if, like I said, The Bakeseys are the funky relief history teacher, and your class is about get moon stomping! The last three tracks offers dub versions of the most poignant tunes on offer here, yet the album as a complete concept is nothing short of brilliant.

The third CD album released on Bandcamp, and quite the best place to start if you’re unaware of them. Keyboardist Kevin Flowerdew, has self-published the ska scene’s definitive zine, Do The Dog Skazine for many decades, which has released this under its label namesake, Do the Dog Music, so he certainly knows what makes a great sound; which this does with bells on.

Mark, Stu & Bakesy backstage at the Epplehaus, Tubingen during The Bakesys’ June 1992 German tour.

Black Market Dubs Elton

On 6th February 1989 an unidentified lone gunman in Kingston, Jamaica killed Osbourne Ruddock. He made off with his gold chain and licensed gun, the music industry lost a pioneer often under-represented in history. The likely reason for this obscurity, he was not a musician, rather a producer and sound engineer who begun his career fixing disgraced radios.

Better known to the world as King Tubby, during his sound system dances of the mid-sixties he noted the crowd favoured the instrumental sections of the song. This rock steady era was dominated by vocal harmony groups, but with a handful of others, including Lee Scratch Perry and Bunny Striker Lee, Tubby set about extending the instrumental sections, cutting the mid-range, dropping the basslines and limiting the vocals with echo delays.

King Tubby

He had created “dub,” more technique than genre, it revolutionised music way beyond reggae and is the mainstay formula of all pop since hip hop; today, we take the remix for granted.

But aside the pioneering techniques we owe Tubby for, dub has too developed into a reconised genre and given us subgenres, from drum and bass to dubstep and dembow.

Still the origins were remixes of rock steady and reggae songs, and from the most unsuspecting area to find dub thriving that ethos, Nashville, Tennessee, Nate Bridges uses the techniques rather to reimagine pop, rock, even film or TV soundtracks, or anything which takes his fancy, under the guise Black Market.

The magic of Black Market is they retain the offbeat formula of reggae, while being versions of four-beat tunes. The strapline goes “what would happen if The Beach Boys had The Wailers as their backing band instead of The Wrecking Crew? What if David Bowie spent the summer of 1975 in Kingston, Jamaica with King Tubby instead of Philidelphia? Michael Jackson meets Scratch Perry? These questions are the basic thesis of Black Market.”

While few of these mainstream sources could easily be converted, such as the Clash, the magic is when Nate and friends takes something wholly non-reggae and breathes an air of dub to it. The Beach Boys album first attracted me to this, but with every new release he never fails to take it to the next step.

The latest release from this prolthic genius is Elton John classics, and I felt it’s long overdue to mention him. This is, without doubt, utterly sublimely executed and would appeal to reggae lovers and fans of the subjects being reimagined alike; hearing is believing.

While we’ve had the astounding recordings of the Easy Star Allstars, when they dubbed classic albums, Dark Side of the Moon, Sgt Peppers and “Radiodread,” they pride themselves in originally recreating the music without samples, Black Market are the purveyors of sampling, the kingpin is the lifting of the original and placing it in a reggae setting.

Find the Michael Jackson Thriller album dubbed, Bowie, Tempations, Talking Heads and Twin Peaks, Batman and Ghostbusters soundtracks among others, and all name your price on Bandcamp.

Astounded by pinning a ska riff to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, Nate told me it was the only way to accomplish the track to such standard he requires, the predominantly downtempo of dub simply didn’t fit the bill. This made me contemplate the complexities of what he’s dealing with, when opposed to simply remixing a tune. And it’s this which makes Black Market such a fascinating project which leaves you wondering what’s next on his agenda, and if there’s anything which he wouldn’t rise to the challenge of dubbing. I’d like to throw Mozart at him!

You’ve Been Mangoed; With Mango Thomas!

Vast developments in the later days of breakbeat house saw a split in the blossoming rave scene. Techno-heads being directed away from the newfound UK sound found solace in a subgenre dubbed “happy hardcore,” whereas the trialling occurred in the dawn of drum and bass, or “jungle” as it was known at the time. Yet it was still underground and reserved for the party. No one considered a concept album, myself included, until I heard A Guy Called Gerald’s Black Secret Technology. I bought it on a memory tip-off, I loved the late eighties acid house anthem Voodoo Ray. It was like splinters of drum n bass over an ambient soundscape, and wasn’t for everyone, but while I was still gulping about it, Goldie released Timeless and the rest is history.

Creative outpourings too radical or experimental for the time are commonplace, and perhaps our necessity to pigeonhole excludes Manchester’s Mango Thomas. He emailed with a list of rejections from specific music blogs and radio shows, being if one part did, the rest of his new EP “Goes De,” out today (22nd Nov) didn’t fit their restrictive agenda. There’s part of me which says I don’t blame them, this is a hard pill to swallow, juxtaposed randomly at breakneck speed, it’s a roller-coaster alright; you have no control where it’ll take you.

Mango Thomas throws every conceivable psychedelic genre of yore into a breakcore melting pot, and pours you a jug; if you take a sip you might as well down the whole thing, for it works fast, it’s a trip and you’re in it for the duration. You have to be, if only to wonder what’s coming next. And in that, it has to be one the most interesting things I’ll review here for a while. Yeah, it uses contemporary breakcore, but at times nods back to drum n bass of yore, but it funks too, it rocks, unexpectedly, and if you thought you could be shocked no more, it even mellowly bhangras at the finale, as if Ravi Shankar wandered in.

There are so many elements to contemplate in this hedonistic frenzy of chaos, yet with crashing hi-hats, stripped down rhythms, sonic belters, echoes and reverbs, it primarily relies on dub techniques absorbing industrial metal and hardcore. Imagine an alternative universe where the Mad Professor is remixing Bootsy Collins, but in this realm Bootsy actually fronts a thrash metal band, and Frank Zappa peers over the mixing board putting his tuppence in; something like that, but more bonkers.

Picking it apart, at times you’ll contemplate Mango Thomas’ location and hear shards of the Madchester scene, other points will wobble you over to the Butthole Surfers, for if it is industrial hardcore skater, it’s done tongue-in-cheek. But it doesn’t come over dejected, as such a genre archetypically does, rather showy and egotistical like a funkmaster general. The man himself explains the effect will leave you “mangoed,” I’ve a tendency to agree.

It’s four major tracks with reprises and clippits between, often Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band fashioned, bizarre, amusing or deliberately belligerent to the mainstream, in true counter culture fashion. Do I like it, though, that’s what you want to know, isn’t it? Damn you and your demands, fuck, I don’t know. It’s always going to be something you have to be in the mood for, certainly not drifting Sunday afternoon music to take a snooze to after a roastie. A younger me would lap it up, as it twists so unexpectedly. Any psychedelia gone before doesn’t touch it for cross-genre experimentation, and for that, in my artier moods, I give it full points. A sensible somebody as I’d prefer to strive for might suggest it’s too far out there. But it entertained me for sure, so it has its place.

Can I suggest you throw caution to the wind, listen and see how long you can bear to hold out for? If you like Tim Burton, Zappa or Lee Scratch Perry you’ll be partly prepared. Try though, as the finale is something quite astounding and as an erratic mishmash it mirrors A Guy Called Gerald’s Black Secret Technology for pushing new boundaries, but it mirrors Sgt Peppers, the Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse and Bitches Brew too.