Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Jah Rule.
Having just watched the DVD of Control, the story of Ian Curtis and Joy Division by Anton Corbijn, I thought I’d post up these cover versions. They follow on very nicely from RAW’s Electronic Dub post in that they are Dub Reggae versions of ‘Transmission’ and ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.Reggae has a tradition of doing cover versions of classic tracks that goes back to the sixties and early Ska recordings. No track is too important and no track too sacred that it can’t get the Dub Reggae treatment.
The artists involved here are the amusingly monikered Jah Division. This EP came out a few years ago in 2004 On The Social Registry label. Selassi I!
Jah Division – Transmission Dub // The Social Registry
Jah Division – Dub Will Tear Us Apart // The Social Registry
Jah Division – Dub Will Tear Us Apart // The Social Registry
Labels: Cover Versions, Jah Division, Joy Division, Reggae
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Digital Laptop Reggae
As regular visitors to Boomkat will know, they are without doubt one of the best online record stores but also have a tendency to bestow slightly over the top praise on certain artists. I always try to make a point of checking out their 'releases of the week' but upon reading such reviews when I'm not familiar with the subject matter in question I find myself approaching my investigations with equal parts excitement and scepticism. However when checking out Disrupt's debut long player, Foundation Bit, which was first brought to my attention through one such review in Autumn last year, I was more than pleasantly surprised by the sounds that were soon coming out my speakers and I ordered myself a copy quick-sharp.For those of you not familiar with Disrupt’s work, it takes equal parts inspiration from classic dub reggae and the soundtracks to early computer games and while this might not sound instantly appealing to many of you I can assure you that the results are a true musical delight. Disrupt is the founder of the Jahtari netlabel where a whole host of free downloads are available from Disrupt and a bunch of other like-minded souls. For those of you still not quite sure what this is all going to sound like, Jahtari categorise their music as Digital Laptop Reggae and as well as free downloads there’s various articles on the ethos behind their productions. Anyway, as ever, I think it’s best to let the music speak for itself and once you start getting into these grooves you’re gonna be hooked. At first listen, some of the tracks you’ll find might seem a bit bleepy or lacking some of the production sheen of many commercial releases but this is all part of the appeal and you’ll soon be skankin’ along in a haze of 8-bit wonder.
The offerings below are just a selection of the freebies available to download from Jahtari and I‘ve purposely avoided putting up anything from Foundation Bit as it’s well worth you shelling out for a copy of your own. Many of the usual retailers appear to have sold out but you can still pick one up at Amazon and if you like what’s below you ain’t gonna be disappointed!
Disrupt - Jah Bit Invasion //iD.023
Disrupt - Argument //Phoke24
Blue Vitriol - Cryovolcano //JTREP03
Volfoniq vs. Trema - Recreadub //JTRNET07
Labels: Computer Music, Disrupt, Dub, Jahtari, Reggae
