Saturday 8 January 2011

Mixes Part 1: Dub

In 2010 I did less writing about music and more DJing. A few highlights:

Dub and dubstep at Wax Treatment, Berlin;
Paw Paw Jam African sessions in the New Empowering Church, Hackney;
Soca, bashment and UK funky in the DH Gedda Tower, Addis Ababa;
The Sofrito posse New Year zouk and soukous mashup in Dalston's Bar 23.

Thanks to all those who showed up and got down at these and other parties ... and thanks also to Mystic Sound for hosting my impromptu appearance on NYC's East Village Radio a few weeks back!

At this juncture I thought it would be a good idea to collect together some of my mixes and session recordings which have been floating around for the last few years. Some of these were previously on www.ialityhifi.co.uk, but this seems to have fallen into the dark web following some kind of accounting oversight. Others have been hosted by various people in various places. I'll be adding to this over time, so keep an eye on it if you like that kind of stuff.

The first group is a dub selection: vintage 70s pieces, 80s and 90s digi, 21st-century UK dub, dubstep and other dub-influenced material. The earliest of these is from 2004. This is the first "Hasan Sabah..." mix, which was an attempt to do a continuous mix (rather than just a comp) of (mainly) versions of JA digital roots tunes. Actually the mixing leaves something to be desired but it was a blueprint of future attempts so there it is, along with the sequel I recorded some years later.

Meanwhile, around 2007, I started an exploration into the territory of dubstep, UK steppas and other modern dub-influenced material, beginning with "N15DUBZ" and leading through a series of "Dub Journeys" mixes, three of which are included below.

"Repatriation Soon", on the other hand, goes back and digs into the deeper strata of 1970s roots and culture.

There are also a couple of live sets, unreleased bits and pieces and so forth. More is to come.


Hasan Sabah Captures the Towers of Dub: digital roots and dub, recorded Aug. 2004. Download here.



Hassan Sabah Commits Murder in the Dancehall: 80s and 90s JA digital roots. A sequel to the above. Download here.



N15DUBZ: dubstep and UK dub from the vaults, recorded 2007. Download here.



Higher Heights: digital dub and dubstep, recorded in Berlin in Jan. 2009. Download here.



Xberg Flex: digital dub and dubstep, originally recorded for a Wax Treatment podcast in Feb. 2010.



Live at Wax Treatment, 25 July 2010: unreleased pieces, extract from live set.



Dubplate Selection 1: unreleased pieces featuring Judah Eskender Tafari, Turbulence, Scepta. Recorded 2008-10.



Live at Wax Treatment, 28 Feb. 2010: roots session featuring Tikiman, Rick Wayne and friends.



Repatriation Soon: deep vintage roots and dub, originally recorded for Natural Self in October 2010. You can download it there.