Fruits in Season: October 2007

Flavor of the Week: The Dub Project 2

Netherlands-based canadian Ryan Moore is the man behind The Dub Project. He's not a freshman at all: Starting out as the bassplayer for The Legendary Pink Dots in the 80's, he discovered his passion for Reggae and especially Dub - resulting in the first release of his "Twilight Circus Dub Sound System" in 1995. Playing all instruments by himself and also doing the mixes on analogue equipment, several albums and EPs established his excellent reputation as a master of heavyweight Dub. Naturally, the next step was to bring in some seasoned singers to voice some of these recordings. Yes, Ryan Moore is the man who encouraged Michael Rose to use his voice in a different, more laid-back way when recording their first collaboration "No Burial" (although rumor has it that it was voiced in a hotel-room and the singer had to hold back his voice in order to not disturb the other guests), and he is also the man who revived Ranking Joe's career with one single tune: "World In Trouble". These tracks can be found on the outstanding compilation "Foundation Rockers" - the album that marks the start of Ryan Moore's career as a producer for Reggae-artists. Since then, he produced and released albums (and their Dub-counterparts) from Michael Rose and Ranking Joe as well as several compilations featuring various artists on his own "M Records"-label.

Seems like - although very successful working with the aforementioned artists - Ryan Moore was looking for an outlet for some of his more experimental works. He found it in 2004, when the first "The Dub Project"-album was released. Described as "experimental dubwise tracks" the record featured some daring bass- and echo-loaden soundscapes with vocal-snippets from Big Youth, Ranking Joe and Michael Rose. Two years later the second installment, "The Dub Project 2", is available and picks up the plot exactly where the first album left it - even the providers of the vocal-bits are the same, with the addition of Jah Stitch. But mind you, this is not your usual Dub-feast! First, these Dubs have not been derived from some regular vocal-tunes; they were made from scratch with the intention of being Dubs in mind. Second, if you're looking for Reggae-typical ingredients: You won't find many of them... a few guitar-skanks, a bit of keyboard-bubbling. Yet, the "heartbeat" is still there: the mantra-like, itself endlessly repeating drum- and bassline. At times a familiar sounding mantra by the way. It's Ryan Moore's soft spot for the sound of the 70's that reminds the listener immediately of a King Tubby-production.

Soundwise, "The Dub Project 2" features some massive (I am tempted to say: subsonic) bass and clear trebles in a well balanced mix. The mastering is, as usual today, on the hot side with replaygain-values around -6.46 dB. But honestly: With such unusual and adventurous soundscapes floating out of the speakers... who cares about the mastering anyway?

Flavor of the Week: Midnite vs. Midnite

I think "Midnite vs. Midnite" is a catchy title for this review, but also a pretty much misleading one. "Better World Rasta" and "Bless Go Roun" are not competing against each other; these two very different albums just happen to be released around the same time on two different labels. Unusual release-strategy of the artist? I don't think so - I believe there is no strategy whatsoever when it comes to Midnite; at least no commonly known one. The albums are ready when they're ready and will be released on various independent labels. Since we're talking about a very productive collective, this seems to happen almost every other month or so. At times it feels like you haven't digested the new album when the next, newer one is already knocking on the door. In that sense the two albums in this review are already outdated, since a brandnew one - "Infinite Quality" - will be available soon.

So how does Midnite do it und who is Midnite anyway? Well, first there is Midnite, the band, consisting of brothers Ron and Vaughn Benjamin plus various musicians. And there are several incarnations of Midnite, centered around singer & songwriter Vaughn Benjamin - such as Midnite-I Grade, Midnite-Branch I, Midnite-Ras L, Midnite-Mystic Vision, Midnite-Higher Bound, Midnite-Rastar and more. Each of these names indicate a collaboration of Vaughn Benjamin with another producer for a particular album, giving him the freedom to explore different musical paths. Live on stage it all becomes somewhat indistinct since Midnite (the band) plays also stuff from the collaboration-albums - which adds to the impression that Vaughn Benjamin is the center of it all.

So here are the two current releases "Better World Rasta - Midnite-Rastar Calloboration" (sic) and "Bless Go Roun - Midnite-Higher Bound Prod." (sic), and although both are enjoyable, they differ very much in style and sound. The first one surprises with the use of two 80's Black Uhuru-riddims but stays close to the sound we're used from the Midnite-I Grade collaboration for the rest of the tracks. This comes as no surprise since all tracks have been recorded by Laurent "Tippy" Alfred at the I-Grade Recording Studio; the very lively mixes were done by Sean Wedderburn at Rastar Recording Studio. The downside of "Better World Rasta" is the horrible mastering, if there was any mastering done at all: Replaygain-values range from -8.46 dB ("Gi Dem") to +1.94 dB ("Negus I Rastafari"), which makes a whopping difference of 10.40 dB. If you don't want to blow your speakers, you better turn down the volume before "Gi Dem" comes up!

"Bless Go Roun" on the other hand surprises with exceptional sounds, a clear mix and a well balanced, although "hot" mastering around -7.50 dB. Soundwise, the only real downer is an audible artifact (hissing noise) on some tracks (e.g. "Ancient" and "Raining King"). Producer Ryan 'Ishence' Willard certainly has his own style and works with HipHop-beats and various unusual samples and loops - like cello-spiccatos and -pizzicatos on "Ye Lands", harp-like sounds on "Nomo" or Kraftwerk-inspired electronicas on "Here On". This makes listening to the album an experience, an exiting journey into new territory. Still I consider it a Reggae-album, pushing boundaries.

"Midnite vs. Midnite" as title for this review seems even more out of place, considering what "Better World Rasta" and "Bless Go Roun" have in common: The exceptional vocal- and songwriting talents of Vaughn Benjamin.

Are You Audiophile?

The Audiophile Club of Athens - A Film by Ken Barnes

Flavor of the Week: Israel Vibration - Stamina

There was a time - in the late 90's - when quite a few people thought Israel Vibration were done. Apple Gabriel left the group and his input was thoroughly missed on more or less mediocre albums like "Pay The Piper" and "Jericho". Remaining members Skelly and Wiss seemed to be worn out, having worked with the same group of people for almost a decade. Still, a first sign of change and a breath of fresh air was when Sly Dunbar replaced Carl Ayton as the drummer in the "Jericho"-sessions. The follow-up, "Fighting Soldiers", got better response - probably due to Dennis Thompson, whose mix sounded much more sophisticated than the mixes done at Lion & Fox for previous Israel Vibration-releases.

Now here comes "Stamina" - Israel Vibration's first studio album in five years... and it was worth the wait. On a first impression one can't help but notice all the changes that took place. New label (Mediacom), new producer (Tyrone Downie of the legendary Wailers), new recording-, mixing- and mastering-engineers, and finally: a step back to some simple, but solid original roots-riddims... at times very much like the ones they recorded with Henry 'Junjo' Lawes for their "Why You So Craven"-album in the early 80's. Canute 'Neil' Ellis' excellent mix adds a lot to that impression, as for once the vocals are beautifully woven into the mix and do not sit on top of it as it was the case when Jim Fox was in charge.

Israel Vibration's five-year-hiatus from the recording studio obviously revived Skelly and Wiss' songwriting skills, resulting in some beautiful, catchy melodies and thoughtful lyrics. A good vocal delivery adds to that impression. Producer Tyrone Downie strips down the music arrangements to an appropriate measure and even makes good use of a drum-computer (courtesy of Sly Dunbar) on three tracks - a first for Israel Vibration.

Unfortunatly, replaygain-values around -8.33 dB and a look at the files in a wave-editor prove that the mastering of the album was done "hot", resulting in a lack of dynamics. Still, the overall-impression of the album is excellent and makes the mastering a minor flaw. Highly recommended!

Recommended Read: Dub Voyage by David Dacks

If you enjoy your dub music and want to know more about its history, makers and various forms, I highly recommend an excellent article written by David Dacks in the September-issue of Canada's Exclaim! Magazine.

Dub Voyage is, as the title suggests, "A Jamaican Offshot's Journey from Studio Accident to World Power" and as such a very well researched piece of work. True, David Dacks misses out on some aspects of dub, and a few innovators and masters like Paul 'Groucho' Smykle are not mentioned - but this is a magazine-article and one would have to write a book to cover it all. Still, this is the best read about dub in compact form that I have come across so far.

Want more? Visit David Dacks' interesting blog The Abstract Index.

Fruits in Season: September 2007