13/05/2008
“Music remains the most strange of the materials because we don't understand what happens when music moves you”. So said English composer Michael Tippett, and in many ways he was right. The realms of music are often divided, different music moving people in different ways - for whatever reason.
Like David Bowie’s labyrinth, various creatures lurk around every corner – some casting scorn on others for liking “Techno” when “Drum n Bass is where it’s at bruv” or when it’s “All about the Reggae, mon.” Alas, uniting the different realms of dance is a singular being. We are of course referring to dub and the Dublime event at Fabric on Sunday 25th May.
Yes, bringing together the biggest names in dub and incorporating everything from drum n bass and jungle to techno and house, Dublime is set to unite the various subcultures of the dance scene together as one; as Dublime’s Matt V explains:
“I wanted Dublime to incorporate all the music I love which has always been linked to dub in some shape or form. I feel dub is the heartbeat of all electronic music, be it jungle, house, techno or dubstep.”
With this being a celebration of dub and its fusion genres, there’s really only one man who could lead the way at Dublime. An innovator, nay – the inventor of dub, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry (at the ripe old age of 72) has plied his trade for over 50 years having launched the scene in a studio in Kingston.
The night will be split into three rooms incorporating different aspects of dub. It’s kind of like a west-end musical trip through history with the sitting down, high-pitched couplets and dodgy costumes replaced by dance, alcohol and deep, funky basslines. The ROOTS room will feature a whole host of legends incorporating jungle-infused dub, drum n bass, and low-end bangin’ tunes alongside the Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry Soundsystem.
“ROOTS stemmed from the headliner Lee Perry,” explains Matt V. “The older feel of dub that leans to a heavy bassbin reliance - hence the additions of Roxy supremo Don Letts, DnB pioneer Dillinja and new dubstep prodigy Rusko, who also has a rootsy feel to his Steppa-esque productions.”
Room two, the TEC room, will showcase the more recent incarnations of techno and electro-tinged dub. Artists include German experimentalist Stefan Betke, who goes under the well-known acronym of ‘Pole,’ playing alongside the hyperdub of Kode 9, the dub-tech of Sleeparchive, and a host of other acts and manifestations. Room three has been dubbed (excuse the pun) POOM.
Over to Matt V: “POOM is completely across the board - artists who mix up all dub styles, reggae, dub, jungle. It’s a very diverse room with more of a party vibe.” Highlights include everything from Leeds dubstep icons, Iration Steppas, through to the reggae-dub root sound of Trojan Soundsystem.
With so many acts bringing so much bass, Fabric is the only place that Dublime could truly be felt. Hell, the venue has bass going through your feet; like a microscopic jet-engine zooming under your toe-nail, blasting through your auditory tube, and crashing round the thalamus of the brain! Hell, it may be called Dublime, but it’s gonna be Sublime. (check out the video below of Fabric’s bass in action)
Sunday 25th May
10pm – 6am
Fabric,
77a Charterhouse Street,
London, EC1M 3HN
Tickets: £13 or £10 (members/NUS)
0870 902 0001
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