for all you dub fans....I know you are out there.
jay 'the fwd guy'
______________________________________________________________________________
Jason W. King
http://calum.uwaterloo.ca/u/jw2king
jw2king@calum.uwaterloo.ca
...how can he be so skinny? and live so phat?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996 21:52:37 -0500
From: eye WEEKLY <eye5@gold.interlog.com>
To: eye-l@bronze.interlog.com, eye-music@bronze.interlog.com
Newgroups: eye.news, rec.music.reggae
Subject: MUSIC: Dub Syndicate
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eye WEEKLY February 8 1996
Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday
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MUSIC MUSIC
DUB SYNDICATE
with Wordsound I Powa
Monday, Feb. 12. Lee's Palace, 529 Bloor St. W. $10 from Rotate This.
by
ERIN HAWKINS
Let's be honest. It's been so bloody cold lately that the thought of
doing away with this dang country of ours and joining up with America
doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Instead of shivering ourselves to
sleep each night, wondering if there will even be a Canada when we
wake up, we can all flock down to New Orleans where our host Dr. John
will welcome us with a little ditty about some sinner man then pass
out bottles of ice-cold Schlitz, which we freely drink down on Bourbon
St. -- along with all those lackadaisical cops. HmmE
Sadly, this won't be happening, but when the legendary Dub Syndicate
splash down in Toronto next week -- with their take on the bass-drums-
'n'-space heavy sound of dub reggae, the woofer-melting future sounds
of Jamaica -- you won't be worried about the cold. Worried about those
embarrassing sweat stains maybe, but not about ol' man winter.
"Gear up and keep warm," gushes drummer and founding member Style
Scott from a Motel 6 somewhere in California, " 'cause we're gonna get
you even warmer. We're coming with some slamming dub. Rrrasta!"
Woo-hoo!
Dub Syndicate was formed some 15 years ago, after reggae DJ Prince Far
I introduced Scott to On-U Sound founder and producer extraordinaire
Adrian Sherwood -- who was looking to set up a studio band in London
and desperately needed a drummer. Throughout the '80s, they released a
string of albums (including two with Lee "Scratch" Perry). All the
while Scott maintained his duties in The Roots Radics, recorded with
Bunny Wailer and played on records like Gregory Isaacs' excellent
Night Nurse.
As Sherwood's On-U crew (including Tackhead, Mark Stewart and Gary
Clail) grew in popularity throughout England and Europe, so did Dub
Syndicate, and the studio band found themselves on an incessant
touring schedule, even doing the monster summer festival gigs. (The
current road version of the Syndicate features bassist Maurice Gordan
instead of Scott's regular partner, Flabba Carter. Filling out the
band is Bubbler Waul and Gibby Morrison.) Strange, then, that this
current 42-date trek is their first time gigging in North America.
Ever.
Some might say the reason it took so long is due to the overall
ambivalence regarding reggae on this side of the Atlantic, but Scott
believes much of it just comes down to marketing. "There wasn't any
great demand before," he says. "We didn't have a proper distributor,
but now with Restless distributing our records in America and Cargo in
Canada, it's helped us get over here.
"If you love what you do and you keep up with it -- you'll get a
result," he continues. "Adrian's great achievement is that he's
invested a lot of time, energy and dedication to what he loves. He's a
great lover of reggae."
ON-U 4-EVER
In the past, Sherwood has toured with the band as their live mixmaster
-- twiddling those knobs of bonged-out enlightenment that can be heard
on 1991's Live At The T&C, which features On-U regulars Skip McDonald
and Bim Sherman. From now on, though, Adrian says his plate's too full
with production work (like McDonald's 21st century blues project,
Little Axe), film scoring and running On-U Sound (plus its new
subsidiary label, Pressure Sounds, which re-issues reggae classics by
artists like Prince Far I).
"I used to go out with them a lot," says Sherwood in an interview from
his office in London's east end. "But Style's organized this
particular tour himself and it's kind of getting more autonomous now."
When asked to describe Dub Syndicate in a word or two, the quick-
witted Sherwood shoots back his answer in that cocky, droll, don't-
bat-an-eyelash way, as only Brits can: "Basically, you've got the
original dub band coming out there next week. There's been records
with Dub Syndicate credited, back to 1978, when Style and I were both
teenagers. But as a thing to listen to, Dub Syndicate's perfect if
you're stoned, and there's no words on it, so it transcends all
language."
Speaking of skinning up, Dub Syndicate have a new record coming out in
the spring, which Sherwood recently named Ital Breakfast. He gently
explained to this non-High Times-subscribing Mary Poppins-of-a-music-
journalist what this term means. Let me tell you it has nothing to do
with coffee, toast and Cheerios.
Meanwhile, Scott says he's primed for the East Coast leg of the tour,
which also means he gets to see his mother, who lives in Yonkers, of
all places. "I'll be seeing her on Valentine's Day in New York. You
know, that's my real last name -- Valentine."
He also has a pre-show message for Toronto: "Spoken word, white
noises, trancy musicE that's what we're all about. It's not like a
Madonna or Prince thing. You should look forward to seeing the
greatest dub band in the world and be pumped up to rock with us all.
Love, respect and dub to you all."
Rasta!!!
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