Artist:
Youth &
Gaudi
Title:
Astronaut Alchemists Remixes
Label:
Liquid Sound Design
Released:
17th April
When
I reviewed the original album I wasn’t really feeling it. Not to
say it was this album itself, but dub music in general. I couldn’t
fault the production it was more a case of having listened to dub b-sides of 7” reggae from 1979, I wasn’t finding much in
the genre that sounded fresh and inspiring in recent years. However,
having attend the live show after penning that review and that
impressed me far more.
So
considering the wealth of talent brought into to add their touch to the
tracks and already catching the promo of Pitch Blacks take on ‘The
Gods Must Be Crazy’ (which was my personal favourite from the
album). Alongside the fact I’ve found myself enjoying some new dub
releases of late I decided to give this a go.
With
30 years of experience in producing dub and chill out as well as
historically working alongside Youth, Alex Paterson’s the Orb seems
a natural choice to start proceedings. Fresh off the back of their
popular new album ‘The Abolition of the Royal Familia’ is the
Orb’s Uraniborg Castle in the Sky mix of ‘Four Horsemen’. The
intro sounds very much like the incidental music from the original
Star Trek while the main body is carried along by a tribal beat,
running the gauntlet of sound fx such as telephone dials, vocal
reggae stabs, space launch commentary, vocoder and other samples with
the ease and grace of an Olympic sprinter.
Record
enthusiasts will be pleased to hear this will be released on 12”
vinyl with Pitch Blacks remix on the flipside this autumn.
Following
on is the Alsan Afro Tribal Dub of the title track ‘Astronaut
Alchemist’. San Francisco’s Jef Stott is a multi-instrumentalist
who has studied under some of the masters of Arabic instruments. He
now teaches as well writing, producing and remixing for the likes of
Azam Ali, Stellamara, Natacha Atlas and more and is regarded as one
of the instigators of the global bass scene. The intro here fuses
ethereal vocals and a sample that I’d hazard a guess is David
Childress of Ancient Aliens over the rising volume of dub. Samples
aside the piece is a nice catchy piece of dub with effective rolling
tribal drums.
New
Zealand’s electro-dub pioneers Pitch Black brew up a bass heavy
concoction of samples, reverb and sound fx to tempt the taste buds
with their Hubristic Prayerformance Mix of ‘The Gods Must Be
Crazy’. Whilst simultaneously stamping their individual brand of
dub, that they have honed and crafted since the late nineties both in
the studio and with electric festival appearances and shows
worldwide. As well as having been selected to tantalise the ears of fans
with the first promotional video of this album.
West Coast producer Eartha Harris
weaves a musical tapestry of dub inspired global dance music under
the name Living Light with four albums under her belt, compilation
appearances for Desert Trax, Merkaba Music, Sofa Beats and of course
LSD as well as touring coast to coast and appearing at festivals
across the Americas and Europe. Her remix for Bluetech’s
‘Geometries in Dub’ proved to be extremely popular over the
streaming sites. Here she ups the pace somewhat with her version of
‘Black Crow Dub’ and juxtaposes between tribal flutes and driving
electro dub to brighten up the dance floors.
Athenian
bass player, dub, electro and psychedelic producer Vlastur, has
amassed a healthy following of reggae fans and regularly graces
psychedelic festivals with his live band in mainland Europe. Whilst
representing the Mediterranean on ‘Bass Weapon’ ft N.Yiakoumis,
he firmly places the traditional Jamaican reggae keys at the
forefront of the piece. Paired with occasional horn accompaniment and
short breaks of dub fx. The overall result of his work basks you in
sunshine vibes from start to finish.
Melbourne
based Auckland electronic producers Deep Fried Dub built up a cult
following in their native New Zealand. They have released on Iboga
and Dubmission Records as well as re-mixing the likes of Banco de
Gaia and their local counterparts Pitch Black, International Observer
and the Black Seeds. Whilst their re-mix of Issac Chambers
‘Krytology’ ft Dub Princess has multi-million streams across the
platforms. Their rendition of ‘Ganjaman’ starts with a vocoder
heavy intro that leads into a fusion of reggae bass, horns and
switches the beat between reggae and drum and bass with comparative
ease.
Since
the early cassette releases Banco de Gaia went on to release on
the legendary Planet Dog and Beyond Records Ambient Dub compilations.
Easily accessible in the high street stores and widely received on
the festival scene his brand of cinematic global electronica has
acquired it’s place in musical history. Here he provides an eerie
atmospheric countdown with his version ‘Empress of the Tarot’
that builds into a rocket of sequential loops, before settling down
after the crescendo into ambient dub with harmonious waves.
Seb
Taylor’s Kaya Project has made a name in their fusions of organic
ethnic instruments, exceptional ethereal vocalists and electronica, as
well as many side projects ranging from trance to techno, breaks and
of course dub. Once more an act that appears on festival stages
across the globe. Also tackling ‘Black Crow Dub’ Seb fuses tribal
chill with the deep bass notes of reggae and flurries of psy-breaks.
Balearic
Funk/Chill Out band the Egg are another familiar face of the festival
scene. The Toscodisco re-mix of their single ‘Walking Away’ was
mashed up with the vocal of David Guetta’s ‘Love Don’t Let Me
Go’ reaching No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. For their part they
went to extra lengths on ‘Good Summer’ and drafted additional
musicians into the studio, reconstructing the original into a
cinematic orchestral number, that provides a laid back chill out
atmosphere and completing the piece with some funky horns.
Lawrence
Harvey otherwise known as Kuba has formed a sound that bridges the
gap between beach bar chill out, psy-chill, dub and eastern
instrumentation. With 8 albums under his belt and another near
completion, alongside festival and gig appearances with a live backing band, he has plenty of admirers. He provides atmospheric
synths peppered with tribal elements alongside flurries of drum and
bass in ‘Empress of the Tarot’ whilst adding slower passages with
touches of glitch.
Once
again representing the west coast of the U.S. The Bombay Dub
Orchestra whose fusion of Indian Classical music and Dub brought them
critical acclaim when they emerged in the late 90’s with
appearances at film festivals across the world. Recording in various
locations across the world utilising local musicians and mastering
from reggae legends Sly and Robbie. Their input with the
international spice station mix of ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’ on
this release continues in that vein with a soundclash of cinematic
Indian instruments and organ drenched reggae vibes. Offering a vastly
different perspective than Pitch Black.
Hailing
from the Netherlands Uncle Fester on Acid’s ‘No Sense Unfiltered’
his deconstruction and reconstructed version of Pitch Black’s
‘Filtered Senses’ sent a shock wave through the social media
sites and was released by Dubmission Records. He takes the original
production of ‘Bass Weapon’ and applies the brakes, his technique
molding a slow motion squelchy piece of dub.
Mindspring
Music label head honcho Onium is an up and coming young producer of
dub techno, chill out and psy-bass from Dallas, Texas. Also providing
another version of ‘Bass Weapon’ where the results of his
production work, delivers an electronic dub style, that’s not a
million miles away from his peers Pitch Black.
Cape
Town’s Sadhu Sensi draws his influences from a myriad of tempos and
styles from ambient and dub, to techno and trance and more in
between. Fusing elements of organic instruments with the electronic, with album releases on Iboga records and festival appearances, he’s
slowly but surely establishing himself as a contender on the scene.
Providing a deeply atmospheric and spacey take than his predecessors
on the original production of ‘Black Crow Dub’.
Australian
Gus Till has worked with an abundance of musical stars from Manu
Dibango to U2 as well as being part of Michael Hutchinson’s (INXS)
Maxi-Q project. Re-locating to London he was the in-house engineer
for Youth’s Butterfly Records and is probably best known in later
years as one half of Zen Lemonade alongside Supercozi. Although,
appearing under his progressive trance pseudonym BUS on ‘Good
Summer’ his stamp on the piece chugs along in an electro dub
fashion with occasional atmospheric breaks.
Better
known for his psy-trance and progressive productions as M-Theory and
CIMI. Appearing here under his psychedelic techno moniker DM-Theory.
Where he adds a little drive to the original production, layered with
an underlying psychedelic feel on ‘Astronaut Alchemists’. I think
it’s noticeable and I have to give credit here, that this is not a
dance remix where he’s just thrown down a four by four and it
doesn’t quite sit right in parts of the track or the vocals, this
works in it’s own right.
Frankfurt
based Gabriel Le Mar has made a name for himself applying the dub
production techniques to techno-house and on occasion to chill out as
Saafi Brothers. He also lifts the pace of the piece towards a techno
direction on ‘Stars’, applying touches of the iconic 303 acid
sound to breathe new life into the piece.
My
conclusion is overall I liked it and there are plenty of remixes to
choose from on this release. The depth of producers selected range
from those who blend the organic with the electronic to the purely
electronic. Admittedly with some tracks are covered more so than
others. However, that works well to give different options of styles
and finding one that appeals to you.
Reviewed
by Woodzee
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