I don't know if I've said it before, but I'll damn sure say it again: if it wasn't for the work Coldcut has put in over the years, I'm not sure if I'd be as well-versed in the sounds of the world as I have been. These two DJs have been doing it for decades, finding a way to go from being the cut-up masters to exposing the world to numerous sounds; everything from hip-hop to jazz to jungle to reggae has fallen under their razors, being sliced, diced, and ultimately dissected by lovers of sound like myself.
To celebrate the release of their new EP Only Heaven (which features the likes of Roses Gabor, Roots Manuva, and the mighty Switch), these two decided to hit the weekly Solid Steel radio show with a reggae-fied, dub-wise hour of a mix, featuring cuts from Lee "Scratch" Perry, King Tubby, The Upsetters, and many more. Not to leave anyone else out, they aligned with the legend Adrian Sherwood, who runs On-U Sound and has worked with Coldcut, Pinch, and others, helping put his stamp on the UK dub/reggae scene. Adrian took over Hour 2 with "a selection of unreleased ,forthcoming and relatively unknown and difficult to find On-U Sound productions / co-productions and a taster of the Coldcut/Onu collaboration , plus a Dub Plate from Ireland's finest, RiRa."
This Culture Clash is going to be INSANE. Reigning champions Channel One Sound System vs. Major Lazer vs. Annie Mac Presents Magnetic Man vs. Boy Better Know!??! Going down at Wembley Arena. Almost wish I had a ticket to fly out there and experience this one!
I keep trying to tell you guys that the "dub" in "rockthedub" DOES have it's roots in, you know, dub. Hopefully you caught the DOA feature I did on Dubmonger, and you looked out for his Dub Of The Living Dead EP that dropped about a month ago. I have a feeling you guys slept on it, so please give this one a spin. Six tracks of filthy dubwise riddims. Whether you're a toker or a joker, you'll be into these. Mastered by LXC, and out now - what more do you truly need!?
"Dub" is more than just the cool word in the title of this blog. I really truly fucks with this music. Drum & Bass producer Morphy does as well, so much so that he has an AKA, Dubmonger, where he crafts tracks in a classic dub mentality, preferably heard on his Experiments In Dub release. I got an interview with him for DOA where we speak on all of this, and he gave DOA the exclusive on this tune "20 Paces Dub" as a free download. It's limited, so grab it EARLY!
Tomorrow, The Two. Fifteens will be dropping their The Commute Vol. 1 mixtape, which features a number of leftfield bass masterpieces, further showcasing their love and experimentation with dub, Hip-Hop, IDM and other forms of trickery. This particular track is a futuristic dub take on Nas & Damian Marley's "As We Enter", complete with otherworldly bass, pulsating kicks and some of that fly back and forth flavor from Jr. Gong and Nas. Kinda wish the majors had seen this and put this on a UK release of the single, but you know how that goes.
As you should know, The Two. Fifteens like to lace RTD with some sick mixes - primarily two tough mixes from the lastcouple of Halloweens. For this special 4/20 mix, they went in with a dub-wise mentality, not only dropping some of their own gems, but also throwing in tracks from Roy Ayers, DJ Quik, King Midas Sound, Black Chow and plenty more sick artists. You might wanna load up the finest in that special bong of yours take a proper pull to this.
With 2010 winding down, I figured I'd make a list of shit that really got me through the year. Shit I may or may not have championed on this very site, but things I think you need to make sure are in your stash for Entertainment, as the shit is dope.
I think it was the summer of 1995 when I first went to the Princeton Record Exchange. In the days of buying CDs, you had your Sam Goody, your Circuit City, your Nobody Beats The Wiz, we had Rock Dreams in Hamilton and a few other spots (shouts to Ace). These spots had the mainstream on smash, but 1995 was when I not only discovered future music, but started to really seek out these tones and vibes that Hip-Hop wasn’t giving me. Aphex Twin, Autechre, Goldie, Tricky and other artists were seminal in this timeframe, and from that foursome, my palette developed and matured, with a fondness for the Dub tendencies that I ended up realizing were prevalent in all forms of music, from Pop to Drum & Bass. While some albums were amazing, nothing felt like it really spoke to me on a whole – maybe it’s because the shouting of a confused Jersey nigga who dug instrumental music and living life in headphones never really got heard. Thank you, Internets.
I say all of that because it’s cats like The Two. Fifteens, two brothers who share a fondness for Electronic beats that can fit a Hip-Hop spectrum but still dabble in IDM/EDM, Dub and other textures. I’ve been hooked on their sound for a bit now, it’s almost like this cornucopia of complex riddim is speaking the words I can’t find when I’m typing. It’s the true American Nightmare – a melting pot of Funk that’s creeping on ah come-up. The lost reels of King Tubby and Lee Perry being funneled through a megacomputer from 2910, weaving intricate tapestries of reality and NOW into your home listening device. And you’re still sleeping. With technology taking such a large chunk of our lives and replacing our lives with scattered symbols and bleeps, it’s surprising that our tastes in music still travel in this minute section of an electronics store.
Dot. Dot. Dot. is the 215’s calling card – if you really wanna know what you should be waiting for in terms of a proper varied plate of bass music, this is where you need to be. African influences, Hip-Hop appeal, Dub aesthetic, and no fear of experimentation and innovation? That’s my kind of tea party – always has been. The one like Daddy Kev put some serious work into mastering this – I know a lot of my peers speak on “CDQ” files and shit, but if you don’t know EDM, you haven’t met meticulous engineering. While a lot of today’s EDM removes Soul from the original works, Kev seems to have let the Soul sit in the forefront, really allowing these tracks to wrap themselves around you, put you in a cocoon and really make you hear. Every. Piece. Of. Music. In. this. Project.
Future music for misunderstood leaders. Quality beats from Cali blastmasters. A testament to the power of modern technology infused with the experimentalism of days old. Or just sick music. This project is all of that, and more…
This week we continue with the Ninja Tune 20th anniversary celebrations with label owners Coldcut plucking out a few gems from the back catalogue as well a look forward with tracks from the Ninja Tune XX compilation. DJ Vadim, The Bug, Ghislain Porier all feature alongside remixes of Coldcut tracks from King Jammy and United States of Audio, plus they have their own take on The Heavy's 'How you like me now'. In the second hour it's more Ninja Tune artists both old and new with Toddla T, Mr Scruff, Eskmo and DJ Food giving us their personal favourites. Toddla T gives us a tribute to the mighty Roots Manuva, while Mr Scruff digs into the archive, but both Eskmo and DJ Food pick tracks from the Ninja Tune XX compilation.
Pop Matters got the exclusive on this Mini-Mix of Roots Manuva and Wrongtom's Duppy Writer album, which is one of my favorites from 2010: "British rapper Roots Manuva hooks up with producer Wrong Tom for a collection of remixes of tracks from previous Manuva albums. They play about with the titles as well as the music (full track list is listed after the jump). The album, Duppy Writer, released on 6 September in the UK and is coming out 21 September in the US via Big Dada. The label has released this mini-mix sampler for the album to whet your appetite. Heavy on the dub, Duppy Writer features a new tune from Roots Manuva and Ricky Ranking called “Jah Warriors” among all the re-imagined songs".
