BRYAN ART - FRESH START EP

BRYAN ART - FRESH START EP
DUBROOM REVIEW

WWW, July 2014 - The first thing you should avoid is to take the title of this EP serious. You should take the name Bryan Art serious, though, and the four excellent musical works of this release even more. Why? Well, that's the four dollar question you will see answered in this review of Fresh Start, the EP.

First, the music. Four excellent contemporary Jamaican Roots Reggae tracks, perfectly recorded into the multitrack by Bryan Art's FILE13 Band. This is the kind of Roots Reggae that counters the slackness and emptiness that is the majority of (Jamaican) Dancehall. This is the kind of Jamaican Music that brings blessings to the whole world. 

With special appearances by none other than Sizzla and Queen Ifrica accompanying his evidently talented and skilled voice, "Fresh Start" is an essential introduction to this multi-tasker in Reggae Music as well. The name Bryan Art, namely, should need no introduction and the fact that it might is a shame. So in a way, Fresh Start is a proper title. It's a fresh start for us as listeners, a fresh chance to get ourselves familiar with this very interesting brethren.

Bryan Art is a guitar player, song writer, band leader, and a singer. Among other things. He has toured all over North America and Europe, sometimes as part of a backing band and sometimes in a different setting. He has been the guitar player of the Fire House Crew, that is King Tubby's House Band personally formed by the Godfather of Dub himself, band leader for Bushman's backing band, the list goes on and on. The music of this Art is not to be ignored or underestimated!

So, what's this with a four-dollar question? Isn't that just a tip on a meal? Well, yes. It's also the price you pay for the four excellent musical works when you CLICK HERE. Get your Fresh Start now and if you must, you can also listen to this quartet of excellency before you do below.

CHECK MUSIC, GET RECORD

HORSEMAN WITH SPECIAL GUEST STAR DILLINGER - MUSICAL 45 2 KEEP U ALIVE

HORSEMAN WITH SPECIAL GUEST STAR DILLINGER - MUSICAL 45 2 KEEP U ALIVE
DUBROOM NET LABEL RELEASE

WWW, July 2014 - Two full-length Discomixes and three Dubs: yes, with almost 30 minutes of music this is the first EP from the Dubroom Studio in the new 2014 sound. Featuring Horseman and Dillinger as well as a number of singers delivering a conscious message, this release brings you both a Steppers Roots and a Rub a Dub vibe. Here is a Musical 45 to keep you alive!

The concept of a DJ chanting over a riddim and singers jumping in and out is not new, not original, not uncommon. Where many styles and genres have incorporated the concept, no one can take away the fact that this all started in Jamaica during the 1970's and even before that. No one can deny that Roots Reggae music, mixed in Dub style, is a perfect foundation for a DJ to chant over and exactly that is what you can find in the two Discomixes. The first one (Love Not War) is a pumping Rub a Dub style, the second a joyous yet serious Steppers Roots. 

The concept of a vocal track followed by it's Dub version in a non-stop mix isn't anything new, original or even uncommon either. Neither is Dub mixing. Both have been developed in Jamaica as well, a fact nobody can deny and therefore many will simply ignore. Not so in the Dubroom, where we are aware that we owe Jamaica a lot, if only for the musical and cultural upliftments. Therefore, two authentic Discomixes and two authentic Dub mixes, plus one bonus Dub just because music is nice.

All five tracks carry the voice of Horseman, who has been chanting since the 1980's and was released on the Greensleeves label. Two tracks carry the voice of Dillinger as well. The man who brought the world "Cokane in my Brain" and a flood of Roots Reggae DJ Tracks even a decade before Horseman came to the (UK) scene. Both deliver a musical message, a Conscious message like Reggae and Rastafari have been doing for decades and will keep doing.

All five tracks are original Dubroom productions. The vocals are legally obtained and licensed, the music and vocal arrangement created and mixed by Messian Dread using the new Dubroom 2014 sound with real horns, real this-and-that and of course real, authentic Dub mixing. Feel free to include the music in your podcast or broadcast, but please do not put the actual mp3 files on your website blog or other distribution format.  

TRACKS:

1. Horseman - Love Not War (Discomix)
2. Horseman - Dub Not War
3. Horseman ft Dillinger - Dangerous & Famous (Discomix)
4. Horseman ft Dillinger - Dangerous & Dubwise
5. Horseman - Dub Controler

This two track release is presented as 128/320 Kbps MP3 Files or true CD Quality WAVE Audio, as usual with releases out of the Dubroom Studio. Click "DOWNLOAD" to go to the Download Page. All Rights reserved © 2014 Messian Dread/Dubroom 

CLICK HERE FOR THE DOWNLOAD PAGE

MAD PROFESSOR'S REEL TO REEL REGGAE PART TWO

MAD PROFESSOR'S REEL TO REEL REGGAE PART TWO
STUDIO DUBROOM SOFTWARE AND SOUNDWARE REVIEW

WWW, JULY 2014 - In what could very well be the first review of the product, we take a look at Mad Professor's Reel to Reel Reggae Part Two as it was just released by Loopmasters. They've been visiting the Professor in his Ariwa studio once again and came back with some very, very interesting material. Read all about it, at least download a demo for free and find out how your productions can be served and improved by the package.

Without a doubt, part two goes further than it's predecessor. It has several things that you could only crave for and probably did, which gets clear at the beginning. So let's start there. Unlike part one, you can choose to buy certain segments rather than the whole pack which can come in handy when you're not able to purchase everything in one go or when you're simply just interested in certain aspects. Here they are:

• Drum Loops
• Bass Loops
• Music Loops
• One Shots (with sampler patches)

For this review (and of course for the Dubroom's musical productions) we've purchased the Music Loops and the One Shots. For the drum and the bass, we simply took a listen to the streaming demo's and dived in the downloadable 55 Mb free demo pack. In the the knowledge that we're dealing here with stuff from Mad Professor's Ariwa Sound Studio, and with reference to Part One, we find ourselves having a solid foundation for our examination.

READ REVIEW, DOWNLOAD SOUNDS, GET LOOPS

Sites For Your Musical Productions: Messian Dread Reports For Studio Dubroom

SITES FOR YOUR MUSICAL PRODUCTIONS
MESSIAN DREAD REPORTS FOR STUDIO DUBROOM

WWW, July 2014 - During these last months, the Dubroom has been releasing new original music in a new original sound. This music has been put on the Dubroom website, and equally -without too much noise on the Dubroom about this- put on a variety of sites that enable producers, artists and/or labels to present their music online. Why? Just to see what these sites are doing in themselves for your average online (DUB) Reggae artist. Messian Dread reports how over 10,000 of ads on sites only led to 8 free downloads...

Let's call them free Online Music Distributors or OMD's for the sake of this article, shall we? For that is what websites like SOUNDCLOUD, REVERBNATION and others we're going to take a look at, actually do. You upload your MP3/WAV file(s), some pictures and write a little bit of info and voila, there's your page. Ready to be viewed by what many sites call "fans", your music available for download and/or streaming and/or purchase.

This is exactly what I've been doing during these last months. I've been uploading the new Dubroom music to a number of sites, just to see what would happen. An experiment, of which some results are not yet available which in itself makes a point. Yes, that first. There is no website that will instantly give you "fans" or even views. You'll have to use the OMD's as part of your own route, like they do with your music. You see them as distributor of your music where they see you, us, as content provider for their websites. Nothing wrong with that, but nothing to overlook either. 

Indeed: gone are the days where just one website could boost an artist and could even become a threat for established musical industrialists. Gone are the days where you could reach out to that large audience by committing yourself to one OMD. This here is a scattered Internet, where listeners have to look for the good music using all kinds of websites and we, music creators, have to do the same. We have to use all the websites or at least three or four, and we have to have a website for ourselves as well. Even a facebook page won't do. 

With all this in mind, I took a look at some websites. Just because I hadn't released a track in years, even the websites where I already had an account needed some serious work. It was kind of an opportunity to see the various websites through the eyes of a new artist. Other websites needed me to make an account, so there was my chance to get a quick discovery look at them. Here they are, in a particular order:

CLICK HERE TO READ FURTHER

BLUE CAT'S FREE PLUGIN PACK

BLUE CAT'S FREE PLUGIN PACK
STUDIO DUBROOM DOWNLOAD

WWW, June 2014 - When the flanger in the free Plug-In Pack is anything close to representing the quality of the rest of the effects, and why shouldn't it be, the Blue Cat has a very fine gift to producers and musicians. Whatever your flavour (VST etc), they have it and you can too.

Admitted: it's just the flanger that was used and it wasn't for this review even though it caused this review to be there in the first place. In other words: this sounded too good to not share and so it was done.  This is a flanger that leaves some of it's commercially available competitors way behind. It works fine with drums and even with voice, when you're into weird Dub mixing that is.

READ MORE AND DOWNLOAD

AYSHA LOREN - KEEP IT LIKE IT IS

AYSHA LOREN - KEEP IT LIKE IT IS
DUBROOM REVIEW

WWW, June 2014 - She's been involved somehow with "Destiny's Child" back in the days, but since this is a thing that is completely irrelevant for the promotion of (DUB) Reggae let's deal with what is. After she's livicated time to be with her family, trained and skillful singer Aysha Loren is now working with John Holt, Frankie Paul and even Luciano while she has just released what can only be described as a true, authentic Lovers' Rock track called "Keep it Like it Is". Yes, please do!

Lovers' Rock is that other side of UK Reggae which may have nothing to do with heavyweight Roots and Dubwise but is nevertheless very much a part of the many styles the big island in front of the European continent has provided the world with. Lovers' Rock: Smooth and silky, yet with a tight riddim or skank section (the guitars etc) and a solid drum and bass line. In other words: Reggae for lovers. Nothing to do with Dancehall and it's outbursts, just niceness and a very pleasant rhythm.

Well, it's a description of Lovers' Rock and it is a description of Aysha Loren's new single "Keep it Like it Is". This sistren has a beautiful voice that suits the silky style of Lover's Rock perfectly. Keep it like it is, indeed, keeping Lovers' Rock exactly like it is. Because it is the way it should be.

The single in fact is taken from an upcoming EP called "Back to You" and when it's representative of this EP, you can say that UK Lovers' Rock has been given an impulse that will help making the genre known to a wider audience, which it should. And for which we pay respect to this sistren.

CHECK MUSIC, GET RECORD

DUBDROPS SOUND SYSTEM VOCALS PARTS 1, 2 AND 3

DUBDROPS SOUND SYSTEM VOCALS PARTS 1, 2 AND 3
STUDIO DUBROOM SOFTWARE AND SOUNDWARE REVIEW

WWW, June 2014 - Just like the previous SoundWare review,  this Dubroom review of the excellent Sound System Vocals by DubDrops (not coincidently sounding like DrumDrops) also comes with some practical sound illustrations in the form of released Dubroom productions. So you wondered where the recent releases featuring Horseman and Dennis Alcapone came from, because you're a producer/selector/whatever yourself? Now you know, without apology. 

Consider all Dubroom productions carrying the works of Horseman and/or Dennis Alcapone to be unofficial promo's for the Sound System Vocals series by DubDrops. Yes, they are completely free and legal musical works representing the current state of the Dubroom Studio and musical phase of it's engineer and can hopefully enjoyed by those that will never read bother to read a review about soundware because they just love (DUB) Reggae Music: the audience, the ones for who ultimately all of we do it. But the music is also partly the result of purchasing the series, for which we make no apology. 

Quite the contrary.

So, when you're a producer, selector, or otherwise interested in reading about the DubDrops series, you might want to check out the Dubroom's three-part in-depth review and decide for yourself if this is something for you as well.

READ REVIEW, DOWNLOAD SOUNDS, GET LOOPS

Radio Dubroom 2014 Chapter 7: Daughters of Zion

DAUGHTERS OF ZION
RADIO DUBROOM 2014 CHAPTER 7

WWW, June 2014 - The seventh chapter of Radio Dubroom 2014 is a livication to all the Daughters of Zion, sometimes getting no attention and sometimes getting the wrong attention. Dignity and consciousness form the main vibe in the one hour and twenty-or-so minutes of this non-stop mix of Roots Reggae and Dubwise. Lots of Dubwise.

The set starts of with a Vibronics Dub, from the album Dub Italizer, a classic until this very day. Second is Lady Shelly, welcome to Canada, not in the least because of some recent publications concerning the trouble Queen Ifrica got from blind warriors fighting Rasta without knowing who they fight against. 

What follows is a selection of UK and EURO Dub and Roots, from Sweden to the UK to the Netherlands. Vibronics, Zion Train, Slimmah Sound, Dubcreator and Goldheart Music are all present. And the Mad Professor, too, with a track from the excellent "Inspirational Sounds of Mad Professor" album released through Zion Train's Universal Egg label.

Enjoy!

PLAYLIST 

01. Vibronics - Positive Dub
02. Lady Shelly -Welcome to Canada
03. Judy Green - So Much Confusion
04. Judy Green - So Much Confusion Dub
05. Sheya Mission - Summertime Dub
06. Sheya Mission - Summertime
07. Sheya Mission - Feels Like Rain
08. Sheya Mission - Feels Like Rain Dub
09. Sis Sanae - Free Jah Jah Children
10. Boney L - English Girl
11. Boney L - English Girl Dub
12. Vanya O - Oh Jah Dub
13. Vanya O - Oh Jah
14. Mika - Tonight
15. Mika - Tonight Dub
16. Nishka - Who Jah Bless Dub
17. Nishka - Who Jah Bless
18. Sis Omi - Judgement Come
19. Sis Omi - Judgement ComeDub
20. Boney L - Jah Music
21. Boney L - Jah Music Dub
22. Aisha - Creation Dub

DOWNLOAD PODCAST (128 or 320 KBPS)