LIVE FROM NYC- In 1960, Kingston Jamaica gave birth to one of the most influential dub fathers in Reggae music, Hopeton Brown AKA “The Scientist”. Being introduced to electronics from his father, Hopeton began building his own amplifiers and buying transformers from King Tubby’s Dromilly Road Studio. After numerous requests Hopeton begged King Tubby to give him a shot to mix down a record and so the story begins. By 1979 he left King Tubby Studio to be the principal engineer for Joseph Hoo Kim’s Channel One Studio where he met Volcano Records founder Henry “Junjo” Laws. By 1980 he started to produce albums backed by The Roots Radics.
Dub music strictly emphasizes on the drum and the bass of reggae music with added effects of echoing, reverb and voice dubbing. There are two albums that made me appreciate Scientist’ style, but since I can only pick one to review, it has to be – “Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampire”. If you are not a dub listener, this is a great entry-level album for the untrained ear! From the minute you put on the cd or the record and play the first track “Voodoo Curse” you hear an evil laugh and then all of a sudden out of the sky…..BOOOM!!! HERE COMES THAT BASSLINE THAT DRAWS YOU IN!!! Every track on this album has a catchy groove and it’s so hypnotizing!! By the time you hit the track “The Mummy’s Shroud”, you will be in a world where it’s just you, the sounds coming out of your speakers, and the next track that makes you wish you were in a room filled with smoke hanging with people lost in the echoing sounds of the drum and bass.
Five songs off the album are also featured on Grand Theft Auto 3 – San Andreas on K-Jah Radio. Since the birth of dub, it has basically influenced all the genres of music – Hip Hop, Jungle/Drum and Bass, Techno, House, Dubstep, Rock, and even post punk acts such as The Clash have experimented with Dub, check out The Clash “Magnificent Seven” if you don’t believe me!! Without dub music we wouldn’t have a lot of the music that influences us today.
Thank God for the Scientist, King Tubby, Lee Perry and the rest I forgot to mention because without them we wouldn’t be DJ’s and producers.
Here’s the full album uploaded by yours truly Sir Golden Child:
Sendai, Japan- In what appears to be the hardest hit area of the country, Japanese news media are reporting that the death tolls are as high as 1000. The 8.9 earthquake is the largest Japan has had in over 100 years and is the 5th largest quake in recorded history.
( Paul Duginski, Los Angeles Times / March 11, 2011 )
Here in California, the tsunami early warning systems were in full effect as reports of massive waves over 23 feet in height were reported in Japan, but as the early morning hours waned into the morning commute, fears abated as reports from Hawaii and Oregon came in and no major damage was felt in those areas.
OK, so I’m a bit late on getting this up and out to everyone, but in case you have been living under a rock, here’s this year’s Coachella lineup (and it looks bad ass as usual)!
(Damn shame you have to break out a magnifying glass to see the “good stuff”)
Perennial party fave and recent Blackberry commercial star, Diplo is back with another mix to keep your head nodding and fill with bass heavy goodness to help celebrate his latest release “Blow Your Head Vol 1 – Dubstep“. While the mix may not appeal to the hardcore trainspotters, we think this one helps illustrate why the dubstep sound has so much crossover appeal.
Big shouts to the family over at Mad Decent for blessing us with another banger!
London- After 2 months of rehearsals and preparation and without the use of a single musical instrument, T-Mobile dropped one hell of a commercial on us and gave folks in London’s Heathrow International Airport a welcome that they’ll never forget.
Check out the commercial and let us know what you think:
San Francisco- The Bicycle Film Festival is celebrating their 10th Anniversary this year and they’re making sure that urban cyclists around the world get to partake in the festivities. With stops throughout the U.S. and international hot spots like Sao Paulo, Barcelona, Paris and Tokyo, the BFF’s mission to celebrate cycling culture is a driving force worldwide.
The BFF-San Francisco kicked off a slew of events & got the party started Wednesday night with the Festival Kick-Off Party at The Knockout and last night Mike Giant ( Rebel 8 ) hosted a group ride from Dolores Park over to The Sports Basement where everyone partied down at “Bikes Rock“.
Tonight the film begins to fly and folks will get a chance to view shorts “On Time”, “Belle Epoch”, & “An Apology” as appetizers to get them ready for the screening of “Empire“.
EMPIRE USA 2010 | HD 55 min. Dir. Christian Thormann & Luke Stiles
The long-awaited urban cycling feature following the city’s best riders as they take to the streets of New York City. Riders profiled include Tom Lamarche, WONKA, Dwaine, Yatika Starr Fields, Dagga, John Prolly, Kai Perez and surprise guests.
Peep out the trailer:
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 10 BFF Kick Off Party The Knockout | 3233 Mission St.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 11 Pre-Party Ridewith Mike Giant| Dolores Park
Bikes Rock Sports Basement | 1590 Bryant St.
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 12 Program 1: EmpireMission Workshop | 40 Rondel St. After Party Bender’s | 806 South Van Ness Ave.
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 13 Bike Movies Victoria Theatre | 2961 16th St. After Party Sports Basement | 1590 Bryant St.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 14 Bike MoviesVictoria Theatre | 2961 16th St. After Party Zeitgeist | Valencia and Duboce
Brooklyn, NY- Dave Gee and MC Diggadee have teamed up to form Heavy Weight Division and bring you “Round 1.” While they are known to perform together live, this is the first official mix from these partners in grime. “Round 1″ is a high speed ride through a dark world of bass and powerful beats. It consists of various unreleased tracks from some of the genres most prolific producers as well as the Cops remix by Dave Gee & Trigon ft. DZ.
The DJ/MC Dubstep duo have had a busy year between playing dozens of shows up and down the East Coast including Winter Music Conference and Starscape and making their way out to Puerto Rico and Paris in the last several months but when they’re at home in Brooklyn, they hold down a residency at Brooklyn’s premier dubstep monthly, Dark Room.
With residencies at Dark Room and Dub Nation, original tunes in the works, and a rapidly growing show schedule, this is an act to keep an eye on heading into the new year.
Cupertino, CA- Apple continually seems to have its thumb on the pulse of the creative community and since the release of the Apple iPad, music producers and hobbyists around the world have been feverishly coming up with new innovations to take advantage of the multi-touch screen and the portability that comes with the device.
The latest announcement that iOS 4.2, the OS release said to finally bridge the gap between Apple handheld and tablet devices, will be able to take full advantage of Apple’s Core MIDI framework and give users 2 new uses:
WiFi MIDI, via Apple’s proprietary implementation, which should allow communication with other Apple handhelds and Macs, though it probably won’t support other devices. (WiFi is a common standard, but the way MIDI is transmitted over it is not necessarily so.)
USB MIDI support for class-compliant devices, using the iPad Camera Connection Kit’s USB adapter.
So enough of the tech-speak…WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IT?!
Well, for starters, we’ve been covering the use of OSC to do cool stuff like this for some time and apparently companies like guitar FX company, Line 6 with their MIDI Mobilizer (that also supports iPhone) are also starting to enter the fray with their own interpretations of what can be done with this technology.
If any of you out there get a chance to experiment with this stuff, we’d love to hear your feedback!
CHILE- A man by the name of Rodrigo Campos has designed what could quite possibly be the coolest design for a digital DJ setup that we’re ever seen. The Töken Mutli-touch pedestal uses a rear-projector enabled sheet of glass and just like an iPad, accepts touch inputs that can be used to control software.
Outside of what was used for the video elements, the other construction details are hard to come by at this point; what got our attention, however, is the way Rodrigo combines Töken with a Traktor Pro controller titled Emulator, turning an otherwise boring DJ experience into something that looks straight out of Minority Report!
Los Angeles- There are some people out there that simply aren’t afraid to put their heads down and put in the work needed to really establish yourself as part of the fabric of the society that we live in and DJ R.A.W. aka B-Boy 3000 aka 6Blocc (or simply Raul to those of us that know him..) is one of those people.
From the early days of the rave scene here in the US to present day touring around the world dropping bass heavy bombs on throngs of listeners that come to see him throw it down as only he can, R.A.W. is one of the hardest working guys in the business.
On June 5th, 2010, a collective of DJs, MCs, artists of all flavors and a ton of people that both know and love R.A.W. for the work he’s put in over the years, are gathering at The Airliner to honor all of his contributions including helping secure L.A.’s position as one of the top electronic music scenes in America and the world!
