Paul Fox and Brother Culture have a heartical connection

UK roots veterans Paul Fox and Brother Culture have joined forces on a new combination album called Heartical Connection, a ten track set – 20 when adding the ten bonus dubs – that is slightly different than expected.

You have the usual ground-shaking bass lines and intense keys, but Heartical Connection also includes a few more lightweight and catchy cuts. Good Time is a joyous and bright celebration of life and the title track is mellow and summery with breezy keys and infectious guitar. The only thing hinting about these roots stalwarts are the added effects.

Then there’s Seat of God. Probably the greatest surprise. It’s an ethereal dancehall version of Amazing Grace with an angelic chorus and mean and lean toasts from Brother Culture in the verses.

Paul Fox and Brother Culture have a good chemistry and complement each other very well – Paul Fox with his dramatic and light singing style and Brother Culture with his stylish delivery.

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Reggae Roast and Brother Culture got the flava

In June 2015 Brother Culture and Nick Manasseh released the excellent showcase album All a We and now it’s time for another rough and tough set from one of UK’s most consistent deejays.

Brother Culture has this time teamed up with Reggae Roast for the seriously weighty EP The Flava. It comes with five deadly tracks, including the anthemic Soundsystem. It kicks off with bouncy 80s vibes on The Flava followed by the uncompromising Bring di Weed with its earth-shaking bass line.

On Same Ol’ Story Brother Culture takes the role of a history lecturer with lyrics like “then World War Two led to Hiroshima when everything in the world get nuclear, the nuclear bomb led to the cold war, the East Germans build the Berlin Wall…” and “the invasion of Kuwait, it was the first Gulf war, Saddam Hussein against Bush Senior, the first Gulf war led to 9/11, when the place came down with flames and destruction, 9/11 led to Afghanistan, America went to wipe out the Taliban, but wars don’t finish, the wars don’t end, it’s the same ol’ story all over again…”.

Reggae Roast has over the past seven years brought forward several earth rocking singles and riddims and this compilation with material recorded with Brother Culture hits hard.

Heavyweight and spiritually devout on Brother Culture’s new album

Veteran UK deejay and sound system mic man Brother Culture has teamed up with producer and mixing engineer Nick Manasseh for his debut album All a We, a hard and pulsating showcase album with twelve excellent tracks.

The album follows the success of last year’s anthemic Sound Killer and on this new album Nick Manasseh unleashes some heavy as lead riddims for Brother Culture to ride upon. It’s socially conscious and spiritually devout.

Brother Culture has for more than 30 years preached his love for Jah while setting sound system dances around the world on fire with his relentless flow. He has collaborated with almost every prominent producer or sound man and has gained unique skills that he and Nick Manasseh have successfully managed put on wax. Highly recommended. Especially the driving Land of Gold and the sincere Selassie Historical.

Brother Culture describes an Orwellian society on The Secret Files

Last year veteran UK deejay Brother Culture teamed up with producer and mixing engineer Joe Ariwa, son of the legendary Mad Professor. Together they dropped a set titled The Secret Files, an album where Brother Culture targets Big Brother, state control and invasion of personal privacy. It’s certainly a current issue thanks to the disclosures made by Edward Snowden.

As usual with albums coming from Ariwa this is showcase effort and each of the six vocal cuts are directly followed by their dub counterpart.

And over a heavy and equally steady riddim Brother Culture chats “the most camera is found in the UK. The film you in the cinema, they film you in the bar, they even film you when you are walking in the park. They say it’s part of the war on terror, but soon every man a gonna need a barrister”. A telling verse of how it is in many countries today. Big Brother is watching every step you take; whether you are outside in the streets or at home in front of your computer.

An important album targeting a critical question, and hopefully it might raise awareness around Big Brother surveillance.

A ground-shaking debut album from Tour de Force

Brooklyn duo Tour de Force – Double Tiger and DJ Q-Mastah – champion bass music like few others on the U.S. reggae scene via their label Dub-Stuy and their 15,000-watt wooden speaker stack, a sound system directly aimed at destroying the Babylonian system. Needless to say, these two producers and beat makers live for the bass.

Their partly instrumental debut album Battle Cry follows the release of the excellent remix EP Old Time Love. This ten track set connects old and new, vintage and contemporary, bass-fuelled genres such as reggae, dancehall, dub and dubstep. It’s dark and gritty with pulsating and potent bass lines, sometimes accompanied by bright horns and echoing organ skanks.

Tour de Force are supported by four vocalists on five tracks – Brother Culture, Jahdan Blakkamore, Jay Speaker and Luciano. A powerful team of singers that help to lively up the murderous beats.

They manage to present twisted, explosive and forward-thinking adaptations of much-versioned riddims such as Sleng Teng (Pool Party), Satta Massagana (Warmongers) and Promised Land (Battle Cry).

Make sure to tell your neighbours before you spin this album, otherwise you might find yourself out on the street. Not everyone appreciate a real ground-shaker.

Four worthwhile EP’s

In the last couple of weeks four interesting EP’s have hit the streets – Rebel Lover Boy from Franz Job, Music Addict by Solo Banton, City of Vibes from Brother Culture and Tony Curtis’ Fight It.

All of these are European productions and the artists are also mainly from Europe, Tony Curtis being the one exception.

Franz Job debut album Babylon is Dead was one of the best albums in 2009, and his newly initiated collaboration with UK producer Curtis Lynch has rendered in a partly new sound. Rebel Lover Boy is harder and more electronic compared to the 70’s sounding debut. However, High is classic Job.

Solo Banton is no stranger to 80’s inspired digital riddims. And on his Jahtari-produced EP Music Addict he flows naturally over Disrupt’s and Rootah’s bouncy riddims. Two of the vocal cuts are also followed by their merciless dub counterparts.

Brother Culture is a veteran on the UK reggae scene and has recorded with a bunch of rough edged producers – Mungo’s Hi-Fi, Dougie Conscious and Ryan Moore to mention only three. His latest effort City of Vibes is however produced by Swiss production team Kinyama Sounds. Their first productions together were for the compilation Reggae Dishes in 2009. Those two songs along with five other organic tunes are collected on the sweet City of Vibes.

Jamaican singer Tony Curtis has been in the spotlight since he won a Jamaican talent contest in the early 90’s. Since then he has released solo material as well as being one fourth of the star-studded vocal group L.U.S.T, alongside Singing Melody, Thriller U and Lukie D. On his six track EP Fight It for Greenyard Records he invites rock stone deejays Burro Banton and Cutty Ranks and sings with his usual rich voice about oppression and romance, with a preponderance for the latter.

Dubmatix vill till Uppsala Reggae Festival

Kanada förknippas oftare med ishockey och lönnsirap än reggaemusik. Men faktum är att på 60-, och 70-talen emigrerade flera jamaicanska artister dit. Producenten Dubmatix håller fanan högt med sitt mjuka, elektroniska sound.

Dubmatix heter egentligen Jesse King och har varit i musikbranschen i över 20 år. Han har bland annat spelat trummor och bas i flera olika reggae-, funk-, blues- och acid jazzband.

För åtta år sedan bestämde han sig för att göra sin egen grej och har sedan dess producerat och mixat reggae i sin studio Dub Factory i Toronto.

– Det som fick mig att börja experimentera med musik på egen hand var tekniken. Helt plötsligt gick det att spela in och mixa på egen hand, berättar Jesse King som nyss kommit hem från en turné i Frankrike, Tyskland och Storbritannien.

Jesse King spelar nästan samtliga instrument själv och alla hans inspelningar görs live i studion. Ljudbilden ska vara tung med mycket bas och gärna påminna om hur det lät på demonproducenten Phil Spectors plattor på 60-, och 70-talen.

– Jag vill inte att min musik ska vara minimalistisk och avskalad. Basen ska verkligen kännas. Jag vill heller inte överproducera och ger sällan eller aldrig instruktioner till andra musiker eller sångare. Resultaten blir ofta bättre av en hälsosam dos spontanitet, säger Jesse King.

En av de saker som delvis skiljer honom från andra producenter är dragen mot det mer elektroniska.

– Jag tycker att alla mina tre plattor har ett ganska konsekvent sound. Kanske är första plattan Champion Sound Clash mer elektrodub. Min senaste skiva Renegade Rocker är nog mer öppen och med fler influenser från andra reggaegenrer, menar Jesse King, och fortsätter:

– Jag lyssnar faktiskt mest på rock och punk. Gärna grupper som The Clash och Rage Against The Machine. Men jag tror inte att det hörs på plattorna, för när det handlar om reggae är jag traditionalist. Det ska inte vara några hårda rockriff, säger Jesse King bestämt.

Även om rocken och punken inte märks i produktionerna, så är Dubmatix i alla fall med och hyllar The Clash framlidne frontman Joe Strummer på färska samlingen Shatter The Hotel. Tillsammans med Don Letts och Dan Donovan från Big Audio Dynamite gör han en tung version av klassikern London Calling.

Utöver medverkan på Shatter The Hotel, så har Dubmatix precis släppt en 7” tillsammans med Abassi All Stars samt ep:n The Berlin Sessions och rytmen Rough Out Riddim. Och han har fler saker på gång.

– Jag planerar att släppa nya plattan System Shakedown i juni. Det kommer att vara samma stil som tidigare, men med nya gästartister. Jag hoppas exempelvis att få med Mighty Diamonds, Dennis Alcapone, Brother Culture, U Brown och Tippa Irie, berättar Jesse King.

I juli och augusti ska han tillbaka till Europa och spela på festivaler. På vägarna tar han med sig brittiske deejayn Brother Culture. När jag berättar om Uppsala Reggae Festival blir Jesse King märkbart intresserad, och vill genast veta vad han ska göra för att spela där.

Sju snabba till Dubmatix

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