Boomshots

Category: Dub

  • Review: Scientist & Roots Radics Rock The Dub Champions Fest 2012

    Dub vets Scientist and the Roots Radics took over this year’s Dub Champion Fest—Amy Wachtel reports

    Like any respectable “creature of the night,” I got to BB Kings just before the bewitching hour of midnight, an appropriate hour for both vampires and night nurses. Deadly Dragon’s sound system filled the air with the sounds of drum, bass & dub recordings. Remembering that Scientist’s jackhammer style of mixing tends to be on the LOUD side, I uncharacteristically put in a pair of earplugs. I even carried an extra set. On the second of five nights at this year’s Dub Champion Festival, the iconic dub chemist Scientist (seen above in NYC, Fall 1988) and dub innovators the Roots Radics band blessed the stage and, joined by the great reggae and dancehall vocalist Johnny Osbourne, put on a show for the ages. Before the concert even began, the energy was palpable throughout the subterranean building as anticipation was through the roof.  This was the kind of reggae show that crossed, and then collapsed, the Time-Space continuum by bringing out veterans and old timers, alongside a more current regime of reggae aficionados and dubheads. Video and photos from the performance after the jump.

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  • WATCH THIS: Lee “Scratch” Perry Live At Dub Champions Festival 2012

    The Upsetter himself rocks the mic inna fine style at Dub Champion Fest 2012

    Perry takes the stage at this year’s Dub Champion Festival alongside the Brooklyn-based Subatomic Sound System. The Night Nurse caught up with Subatomic’s top selector papa Emch, the man behind the whole festival, for a dubwise Q&A. Video and photos after the jump. (more…)

  • Reasoning With Scientist

    A Dub Legend Speaks on King Tubby, The Roots of Dub, & The Vampire-Killing Power of Drum & Bass

    History will be made tonight at B.B. King’s in New York City when the Dub Champions Festival presents Scientist and the Roots Radics band performing their legendary 1981 album Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires live in its entirety for the first time ever. The Radics’s sessions for Henry “Junjo” Lawes at Channel One Studio became the stuff of legend, largely because the brilliant young engineer Scientist was at the controls. Born Overton Brown in Kingston, Jamaica, Scientist was just a teenager when he first began working with King Tubby’s, the originator of dub music. He managed to win Tubby’s confidence and the student soon became a master, the most in-demand studio engineer in Jamaica. With a big assist from Emch of Subatomic Sounds we caught up with Scientist for this rare in-depth interview and he had so much things to say. Suffice it to say that half the story has never been told. Q&A after the jump. (more…)

  • Dub Champions Festival Kicks Off Tonight In NYC

     The Past, Present & Future of Bass Music: From Scientist & Lee “Scratch” Perry to Kode9 & Appleblim

    These days everybody seems to be raving about electronic dance music—or “EDM.” There are too many different subgenres to list here, and more are being invented as we speak. But the true heads know that it all started with another three-letter word: dub. Subatomic Sound’s second annual Dub Champions Festival is all about rewinding back to the reggae roots of dub and then fast-forward into the future of bass music. It all begins tonight with Deadly Dragon Sounds free Downtown Top Ranking kick-off party at Happy Endings. As always, the Downtown Top Ranking session is free. For everything else, you may want to register at  www.DubChampions.com for a discount code. Full schedule of events after the jump.

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  • HEAR THIS: Inner Circle ft. Touter “Drum Song”

    Keyboard Master Touter Harvey Drops A Dubstep Update of The Jackie Mittoo Classic “Drum Song”

    “Reggae influence a lot of music,” says Bernard “Touter” Harvey, and he should know. He’s played on classic cuts by Bob Marley and Inner Circle, among others. “Look at it this way, reggae have many babies. A man say in Jamaica you have the roots. Every tree have to have roots and it have to have branches. And from branches, sometimes you get seeds. Sometimes even the root push out another plant or a baby plant.” One of the  new musical babies would be dubstep. “Where we used to have dub, now we have drum and bass and dubstep.” The good people at Dubshot Records have teamed with Inner Circle to produce Dub Planet X, a tribute to Jackie Mittoo, reworking some of his classic compositions inna “Steppin Dub” stylee. Audio after the jump.
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  • The Wisdom Of Lee “Scratch” Perry

    Win Tickets To See The Artist Formerly Known As Pipecock Jaxson in NYC This Thursday

    Long before Lil Wayne started proclaiming that he was “not a human being,” Lee “Scratch” Perry had the whole self-mythologizing thing down to a science. Unfortunately Scratch the character—order your limited edition vinyl… action figure before midnight tonight!—has very nearly eclipsed Lee “Scratch” Perry the man, who just happens to be a bonafide musical genius. His influence on legendary artists ranging from Bob Marley to The Beastie Boys has been well documented, still the cult of personality persists. But when Scratch takes the stage to perform live tonight in Washington D.C., he might just remind a few people what all the fuss is about. (Check the tour dates below.) If you happen to be in New York City tomorrow night, answer our million-dollar question for a chance to win tickets to the May 17th show at NYC’s Gramercy Theatre. And even if you can’t make it to any of these gigs, read on to pick up some pearls of Perry wisdom, as reported by the man called Emch, whose Subatomic Sound System has toured the world with Scratch.

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