The Groove Thief

Fresh from the lab, here is my latest DJ effort! This is the first installment in a series of FREE DUBS mixes, hope you all enjoy it:

Free Dubs: Flight is a DJ mix, fully realized while in the air between Hong Kong and Chicago, consisting of exclusively free music. Intended to showcase talented artists giving away their dubs, this features a heavy-yet-upbeat selection of tracks. Exploring the wild world of modern dub, the influences here stretch far beyond the Jamaican dub tradition, including the darker side of bass, the electric violin, and South American hip-hop.

Special thanks go to the creators for sharing their work, to Cathay Pacific for inadvertently providing an in-flight studio by including power plugs in Economy Class, and to my ever-supportive wife for graciously encouraging me to take a two-week holiday with friends and family that also enabled me to construct this mix.

Crafted, assembled, and edited using Ableton Live on a MacBook Pro.

OR

1. Upsteppers - Tooth & Claw Dub

2. Upsteppers - Tooth & Claw Dub (Hope One Remix)

3. Dubmatix - Renegade Rocker Dub

4. Sudaka Sound & Krak In Dub - Pacha Mama

5. Negritage! - Fiver Wize

6. Addis Pablo - Axum Dub

7. DuBioLin JaM - Radical Organ

8. Attack Released - Heavier Than Dem

9. Injham - Melodica Time (Remix)

10. Dub Salon - Dub Shell Faded

11. Negritage! - Dub To Afrika

DOWNLOAD = http://bit.ly/N5wVNV

Please check out TheGrooveThief.com, Hong Kong’s premiere music blog, for hundreds of short.smart dub/reggae/bass reviews.

Negritage! are truly exclamatory: this self-described lost son of King Tubby proudly carries the flag of analog dub high. Amidst echoes and reverberation, powerful mutated riddims emerge from the depths of southern Argentina. Plenty of free downloads abound, covering the range from the pulsating beat of “Digi Dub Era” to the smoothly melodic “Drumah Dubah” to the ambling warbles of the suitably-titled “Bass and Delay Battle” to the delightful and hopefully-not-mistyped ”Dubbing Into Thd Wild” which unleashes a melodica upon plinking synths and heady drums. Every track here is dub art, making Negritage! one of the more under-appreciated artists reviewed yet. Originally discovered via Dubbhism’s fine Strictly Analog Dubs, there are no-longer-hidden gems galore up on Soundcloud.

Aram Scaram / Citizen Sound is a passionate dub advocate, mixing and producing some wicked tunes.  I was tipped off about the track “Seasons Change,” which is a smooth slightly digital upbeat summer-time reggae jam with Melodic & Jahdan Blakkamoore, but the true gem here is the fresh beast-of-a-reggae-and-dub-mix* Sucka For The High Grade which just magically appeared on Mixcloud.  The mix starts heavy, gets a little funky, meanders through Mungo’s Hi FI territory, basses up, and then ends on some classic vibes.  Great stuff, as are the latest two riddims “Sound Man” and “I Know A Little Sound.”  Much more on Soundcloud.

*props go to compound modifiers for their ongoing support of over-hyphenation in music reviews

Dub Salon craft eerily spacey dubs that still maintain a nice groove and rhythm.  The danger of dub is to go too far off the deep-end with effects and echoes, but tracks like “Properly Rolled” and “Dub Shell” find a nice balance between the style pioneered by Lee “Scratch” Perry and the cravings of the modern dance-floor.  Yes, these are arguably still mellow tracks, but they’re full of smart layers, both on the aforementioned instrumentals and on vocal tracks like “Forward” (featuring Razaman).  Dub is a wide genre, with a myriad of influences beyond the obvious reggae foundation, and intelligent artists are able to take the successes of the past and create a dynamic and innovative future:

Playing high-speed bluegrass, The Get Down Boys enable fans to easily do the same.  Hailing from LA, not exactly an ol’ time string band mecca, TGDB are blazing a new path with their spit-fire vocals, upbeat high-tempo picking, and a classic mix of instrumentation that sounds twangy and fresh.  ”Pig Pen” definitely starts the set off strong, “There Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” is only fleetingly mournful (and perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek), while “Big Sciota” ventures into an Irish jig.  This is well-polished music - more is available from Soundcloud along with videos on Youtube.

Sinden throws together a frantic and varied mini-mix for the Annie Mac show on BBC Radio 1.  From disco to electro to house to hip-hop to funk to … whew - all that and more in this 5-minute mix.  This is how to cover a lot of musical territory in a little time.  Is every mix perfect?  Perhaps not, but this vibe works well, and rather than resorting to mashups to fit in so many styles, Sinden wisely picks tracks that flow together well regardless of genre.  Good stuff, and a lot of classic sounds packed in here, stream or d/l:

Sweet name aside, Robot Orchestra, with Beat The Odds, has assembled an impressive beat tape (apparently defeating the odds), mixing up nice funky soul-hop in the same vein as RJD2 or Dilla.  As shown on the included remix of Pharoahe Monch, he’s not afraid of making it heavy, although the majority of these instrumentals are more soul than hip-hop.  That shouldn’t be seen as a detraction since they are cleverly-crafted with a clear emphasis on the drums, which shine through regardless of what melodies and grooves sit atop them.  There’s a recent short interview available as well.

It’s worth noting that the remixes are not only downloadable but are .wav format:

British DJ Jstar tears apart the bass spectrum with his exploratory remixes and mashups.  Plenty of reggae has been sifted through to assemble the tasty treats found within his Free Downloads set on Soundcloud.  From instrumentals and riddims to big UK stars like Tenor Fly and Roots Manuva to mashed-up American hip-hop anthems like “Passin’ Me By” and “Regulators,” it’s just about a guarantee something here will straight blow your mind.  Often performing with a live MC, Jstar proves he can street-rock it fierce on his own. Stream & d/l alike below, and check out his mixes as well: