Soul Fire - Wake Up Your Lion [DUB028]

Lee “Scratch” Perry’s 70‘s classic “Soul Fire” was the ignition for the songwriter and singer Vassilis Savopoulos a.k.a “Jah Smiley” from Thessaloniki, to form in the beginning of 90’s “Soul Fire”, the first reggae band in Greece. It has been almost thirty years since then and probably no one could have ever imagined, that this reggae band would record their first album with the internationally renowned dub producer Mad Professor in 2005 and play as the opening act for the legendary band of Bob Marley, "The Wailers”. Well-known artists participated in that first album: drummer “Sinclair”, member of Lee Scratch Perry’s band “Roboticks”, Aisha on the backing vocals, Cofi and Mafia from “Mafia & Fluxy” plus MC Fredi Kruga.

Wake Up Your Lion is Soul Fire’s 2nd album and was originally released back in 2013 on Soul Fire Music. We feel honoured to be able to digitally distribute this album through Dubophonic Records, eight years after its original release. The album is mixed and mastered by Professor Skank and includes fourteen tracks ina roots and culture style. With classics like “Rasta People”, “Wake Up Your Lion” and “Rootsman Skanking”, this album is without doubt an important piece of reggae culture in Greece.

CREDITS: PRODUCED BY JAH SMILEY (SOUL FIRE MUSIC PRODUCTION) / MUSIC & LYRICS WRITTEN & ARRANGED BY JAH SMILEY / RECORDED AT SOULFIRE STUDIOS & DOPE STUDIOS, THESSALONIKI, GREECE / MIXED AND MASTERED BY STEFANOS PATERAKIS AKA PROFESSOR SKANK AT UNDERGROUND DUB STUDIOS, AGIOS NIKOLAOS, CRETE, GREECE / ARTWORK GEORGE LEE - TREBANAL CREATIVE / LEAD VOCALS, MUSIC EDITOR & PROGRAMMING : VASILEIOS SAVVOPOULOS AKA JAH SMILEY / KEYBOARDS & SYNTHESIZERS: GIANNIS STOIKOS AKA ZOAO AFROSO / BASS: TASOS TOPTSIDIS AKA T WISE / DRUMS: STERGIOS KOIAS / GUITAR RHYTHM, BASS: VAKIS GULIOS / LEAD & RHYTHM GUITAR: THANASIS VAMVAKOUDIS AKA KOTON / LEAD & RHYTHM GUITAR: LAZAROS KERAMARIS AKA LAZER / PIANO: ELI DAMASKOU / BACKING VOCALS: HELEN BAGA, ANTHI KIRKOU / TROMBONE: GIANNIS MARINOS / TENOR SAX: ALEKOS PANAGOPOULOS / TRUMPET: GIORGOS AVRAMIDIS / TROMBONE ON RASTA PEOPLE : MENELAOS KARAGIANNIS (ODF)

01 Rasta People / 02 Wake Up Your Lion / 03 Life Ain't No Easy / 04 I Wanna Get High / 05 One Love One Life One Jah / 06 Praise Jah Rastafari / 07 One Jah / 08 Just Another Day / 09 I wish / 10 Mama / 11 Music Is My Life / 12 Rootsman Skanking / 13 Rise Up / 14 Who's Gonna Dance

Recommended by Reggae Revellers

Culture Horn & Gun Power - Feel It [DPH047]

Gun Power is a music band from Moscow. Nevertheless, the band was born in Thailand in 2017 by travelling musicians, who were playing in reggae bars all around Koh Samui and Koh Phangan islands. After returning to Russia, they decided to keep groovin' together and that’s how Gun Power was founded.

In 2019 Gun Power started working with Culture Horn Sound System, recording compositions that the CHSS team worked on. Later the same year, the band started to experiment with the sound, making improvisational concerts, playing over with jazz, dub, funk, instrumental "chillrave." In 2020, as a result of the pandemic times, the band was reshaped. But despite these changes, Gun Power is still working on events and a studio album.

This release is the result of their collaboration with Culture Horn Sound System and includes two songs and two dubs, following the format of all the releases of Culture Horn. The first tune is a rework of the classic anthem of Althea and Donna in a discomix style, while the title track Feel It is their first song ever released, written in a lovers rock style. Both tracks are accompanied by the obligatory dub mixes.

01 Gun Power - Top Ranking (discomix) / 02 Culture Horn - Ranking Dub / 03 Gun Power - Feel It / 04 Culture Horn - Feel It Dub

Top Ranking (discomix) on R&D Vibes
Feel It Dub on The Dub Zone
Feel It on the Roots & Reggae Show 06/03/21 with Sista Selecta
Top Ranking (discomix) played by Pete Cogle in PCP#685
Featured in Irie Mag (February 2021)
Ras Danny showcases the ep on Higher Reasoning Reggae Time
Featured in the February Irie Mag Spotify Playlist
Feel It (discomix) & Dub on El Cant De La Xitxarra
Dr Strangedub plays Top Ranking (discomix) on Echo Chamber
Top Ranking (discomix) on Culture Dub Radio
Recommended by Pullup Mag
Recommended by Reggae Revellers
Reviewed by Culture Dub
Recommended by Dub-a-Rebel

Shanti-K meets Aki Mittoo ft. Goja Bongos - Botanical Story / Rudies [DUB027]

If we could use words to describe this new EP coming from the land of the rising sun, these would be "heavy Far East dub sound of future roots". Two uplifting instrumentals, Botanical Story & Rudies - three cuts each! The dub recipe consists of the following three ingredients, only to be found in Japan:

The dub creator and producer Shanti-K: He Started making music in 1993. As a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, bass, djembe) and producer (Kalpana Studio), he has been providing riddims for various artists, releasing tunes on vinyl and digital. As a soundman, he founded alongside “Light-On Super-Disco” in 2020 the “Dub And Future” Sound system, producing tunes also for other sounds.

The female melodica player Aki Mittoo: Coming from the town of Aichi and already a regular on the label, she is known through her collaborations with Dub Cmd, SistaSara and Soul Fire. Nevertheless, this is her first release on Dubophonic Records as a member of a full Far East crew. She has a license as a Yamaha piano instructor and a Suzuki Musical Instrument melodion instructor. her playing Style is cultivated through her experience as instrumentalist in different genres throughout the years.

The Kette drum player and manufacturer Goja Bongos: He lives in the town of Hyogo and he likes earthy music: reggae, African, afro-Cuban and Latin. After his visit in Jamaica in 2005, experiencing the authentic reggae music, he returned to japan and in 2009 he started manufacturing kette drums. Since 2015, he has been in charge of the percussion in the roots reggae band of Sister Maki, while his passion for drumming guided him to form in 2019 his own nyahbinghi project. "Goja" is a local dialect of Banshu that means "crazy"! If you enter the circle of Nyahbinghi, the drums of Goja Bongos will shake the earth with a dangerous presence. 

01 Botanical Story / 02 Botanical Dub / 03 Botanical Bongos / 04 Rudies  / 05 Rudies Dub / 06 Rudies Bongo

Selecta Jerry plays Rudies & Rudies Dub on Sounds Of The Caribbean
Sista Selectah plays Botanical Bongo on 7th February on 2BOB Radio 104.7FM Australia
Dr Strangedub plays Botanical Dub on Echo Chamber
Selecta Jerry plays Botanical Bongo on Sounds Of The Caribbean
Berti Roots plays Botanical Story on Espaço Zion
Recommended by Bottom Of The Pops online zine
Rudies played on Meltin' Dub RDWA 107.5FM
Reviewed by Dubroom
Botanical Dub on The Dub Zone / Blue  Dub
Recommended by Soulguru Soulful Sounds
Recommended by Reggae Revellers

iGL & Alecho - From A Droplet [DPH046]

iGL & Alecho is an electronic music project from Athens, Greece, consisting of Konstantinos & Alexandra. The duo made its first appearance on Dubophonic Records during its live session at the Lockdown Online Festival, while their track “Time Capsule” was included in the compilation “Explorations In Dub / Lockdown dub” in year 2020.

From A Droplet” is their debut album release. It is the story of a small atomic structure and its journey to the stars. So significant was this molecule’s appearance it would change worlds and be the matrix of life on this planet. It is a conceptual dub album revolving around the journey of life, from the water to the stars, as it is described through the titles of the tracks, but also through the inspiring artwork. 

 

A special moment in the album is the track “Limbs”, which includes a melody from Barrington Levy’s “Shine eye Girl”, which is completely reworked. We have also included as a bonus a bonus remix by Indamouse.

Produced by iGL & Alecho

Mastering by iGL & Alecho and Indamouse

Artwork by: Monte

01 Underwater / 02 Limbs / 03 Launch / 04 Wormhole / 05 Unexplored / 06 Laika /
07 Limbs (Indamouse Remix)

Recommended by Culture Dub Free Dubload
Played on CNNP Podcast / Pow Town Get Down
The Groove Thief plays Limbs (Indamouse Remix) on Dub Palace / After FM
Recommended by Dub-a-Rebel
Unexplored on Culture Dub Show / Radio Pulsar 

Wormhole played on Meltin Dub / RDWA 107.5 FM France

Reviewed and Showcased by Saetchmo on Echochamber

Recommended by Dubblog

Reviewed by Dubroom
Pete Cogle plays Wormhole on PC Podcast

Recommended by Reggae Revellers