In the store | Dub Club – Signs & Wonders in Dub (Foundation Dub Vol. 1)
Signs & Wonders in Dub: 10 tracks "mixed in a dubwise fashion", pressed on single vinyl at Capsule Labs here in Los Angeles, covered in one-of-a-kind, hand-printed sleeve.
Stones Throw and Dub Club have teamed up to release a collection of new recordings by Jamaican sound system legends. The album Dub Club: Foundation Come Again was recorded in Jamaica and Los Angeles by Jamaican artist Tippa Lee and Dub Club's Tom Chasteen.
Since 2000, Dub Club has carved out an indelible presence in the worldwide reggae scene – drawing huge crowds each week to check out the best artists from Jamaica perform alongside the venerable Dub Club DJs. The man behind the night and Foundation Come Again is Tom Chasteen, who over the last twenty years has been making waves not only as a club promoter, but also as a DJ and producer.
It was a revelation for Chasteen when he discovered that the artists who made the classic reggae 45s he was playing each week were still out there and ready to perform. He started tracking them down and flying them in to Los Angeles to play at the Dub Club.
Chasteen, along with Jamaican artist Tippa Lee, jointly produced Foundation Come Again. Each track is a new recording featuring dancehall icons that have be graced the stage of the celebrated Dub Club. The tracks were recorded over several years in both LA and Jamaica. A hand picked band of LA-based reggae musicians tracked a long list of thumping instrumentals under Chasteen’s direction before the vocal contributions were added in Jamaica. Tippa Lee recorded many of the vocals during one trip to Kingston where he rounded up the “who’s who” of rarely heard sound system legends for some marathon sessions at Mixing Lab studios. Well-known in Kingston, Lee made his first recording at King Tubby’s studio at the age of 12, and had a Jamaican #1 hit in the ‘80s with “No Trouble We”. He contributes the standout “Hey Mr. Big Man” here.
THE DUB VINYL:
Signs and Wonders in Dub was mixed live to tape in one take by Chasteen. The dubs were made the classic way, improvising in the moment, twisting knobs, pushing faders, reshaping a song with echo, reverb, space and time. Chasteen says, “Dub is not just a contest to create the heaviest ever bassline, but a subtle carving away at a piece of music. The dubs on this record also keep one foot in the dancehall, where dub where was born and raised."
Signs and Wonders features artwork by Gustavo Eandi, with art direction by Jeff Jank. Each sleeve was hand-printed by Hit+Run in East L.A., using a set of different screens and ink, resulting in one-of-a-kind sleeves.
PHOTOS: SIGNS & WONDERS IN DUB PRINTING PROCESS
Back Cover:
