Discover Top Posts Tagged with #90's dub

Nightmares On Wax - “Les Nuits” Routine Song released in 1999. Compilation released in 2001. Trip Hop / Downtempo / Dub

Nightmares On Wax really is just one of the most consistent crafters of trip hop and lounge tunes out there. Either by himself or with someone by his side, George Evelyn's been putting it down for Warp Records—a label that doesn't even release much in the way of trip hop—for somewhere around 30 years now. In fact, he's actually Warp's longest tenured artist! And he's always managed to be the reliably cool, calm, and collected sedative to the label's otherwise vast array of boundary pushing mad scientists, like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Oneohtrix Point Never, and many, many more.

After going roughly three years without releasing a single piece of music, Nightmares On Wax returned in a big way in 1999 with an instant classic of a trip hop album called Carboot Soul, and it's on there that you'll find a great song of his called "Les Nuits," which was also featured on a Warp sampler called Routine.

"Les Nuits" is a perfect piece of cinematic blunted chill. Mixing light touches of watery, synthesized funk with dubby basslines and orchestral strings that sway like a warm breeze, Nightmares On Wax provides us with the ultimate in complete coziness. This is poolside lounge material, it's coffeehouse ambiance, it's late night solitudinous serenity, and it's also great for a nice cruise about town on your motorized scooter, which is exactly what the super cool black-and-white music video for the song depicts Nightmares On Wax doing:

Second half of this joint brings some other sweet pieces to the table, too, as a piano interlude leads into a combination of lo-fi organ puffs and a wordless female vocal, all closing out a song that from top to bottom is just so freaking gosh darn idyllic. There's just no way that whatever you picture while listening to this thing is anything but picturesque.

One of Nightmares On Wax's greatest songs, in my opinion. What a fantastic tune.

And if you want more of these positive vibes, check out a poorly written post that I made a few years back about his very unknown 1992 house tune, "Happiness" Link to the YouTube video from back then appears to have been removed, so check it out here.

Stereotyp - “Slo Jo” DJ-Kicks by Kid Loco 1999 Downtempo / Trip Hop / Dub

***Song starts at 59:05 and ends at 1:03:34.***

You know, for someone who's so fucking good at what he does, and for someone who was considered something of a protégé of the dynamic duo of Kruder & Dorfmeister, and for someone who's churned out some of the uniquest music in the realm of downtempo, you'd think the names Stefan Mörth or Stereotyp would resonate with more people. But they don't. And that sucks.

I don't have much info about this Viennese wonder either. He has a decent-sized catalog; over ten 12-inches and three full-lengths; music comes out in dribs and drabs. He debuted in '99, and he appears to still be going, having released his latest album in 2019. Also done a solid bunch of remixes, too, it looks like.

Twenty years before his newest LP though, Stereotyp debuted on Kruder & Dorfmeister's G-Stone Recordings with a 12-inch called Stash It. And opening up that 12-inch, as the world's first introduction to this talent, was the offbeat, dub-infused, cold, dark, and sharp, "Slo Jo," which in that same year, France's Kid Loco used to close out his wonderfully out-there DJ-Kicks mix for Studio !K7.

"Slo Jo" is, and I don't state this lightly, a song that is truly like nothing you've probably ever heard before. With a really strange and stoned, broken rhythmic foundation that includes thick and deep sawtooth bass burbles, rim shots, and softly pummeling kick drums, this tune grows to alternate itself between a tranquilly lilting female vocal, courtesy of someone named Le Bubu, and unexpected strands of rippling lead melodies, the first time with a lazy acidity and the second with an added subtle bit of warmth and a light, eerie ringing to sandwich that acidity.

What a way to introduce yourself as an artist. Really amazing stuff.

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O. Junction - “Dub Plantation” Ska, Rock-Steady, Reggae, Volume 1: The West Coast Chronicles 1997 Dub / Reggae

It’s a bit difficult to parse this out but it appears that O. Junction, also known as Ohana Junction, is basically an alias of Go Jimmy Go, who were perhaps Hawaii’s greatest third wave ska band. Unconcerned with playing a contemporary sound, Go Jimmy Go drew inspiration from the original cream of ska and reggae’s crop with bands like the Skatalites, the Maytals, and the Wailers and sought to keep those types of vibes relevant. Despite there being other Hawaiian ska bands that tried to replicate the sounds of those groups, what set Go Jimmy Go apart from their peers is that they preferred to play originals instead of covers, which made them a band to be taken more seriously. And on top of that, they were really good. Go Jimmy Go also weren’t strictly a ska band. They were known to also play soul, rocksteady, and reggae tunes.

Founded in 1996, Go Jimmy Go wouldn’t have an official release until 1998, when they released a live performance from the University of Hawaii’s radio station on cassette. But the track “Plantation Lullabye” by O. Junction, which appears on the 1997 compilation Ska, Rock-Steady, Reggae, Volume 1: The West Coast Chronicles through Steady Beat Recordings, features people who were all members of Go Jimmy Go and it predates all of Go Jimmy Go’s recorded material. So if you’re a Go Jimmy Go fan, consider “Plantation Lullabye” as maybe their actual first released recording.

Their second recording appears on that same compilation and it’s a largely instrumental dub remix of “Plantation Lullabye”. While “Plantation Lullabye” features a bit of dubbiness on its bridge, “Dub Plantation” makes dub its focal point. Heavier bass pulses, trippy guitar reverb plus other effects, chopped horns, and light, tapping percussion all manifest to produce this groovy remix of a great late 90s reggae revival song.

Go Jimmy Go before they were Go Jimmy Go, showcasing their dub exploits. Sweet remix.

#dub #dub music #reggae #reggae music #music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music #90s dub #90's dub #90s reggae #90's reggae

Today’s compilation:

Hi-Fidelity Dub Sessions - The Second Chapter 2000 Dub / Downtempo / Trip Hop

Listen to the full album here.

Favorite tracks:

Indian Ropeman feat. Shahin Badar - “66 Meters (Lower The Tone Edit)” Tosca - “Chocolate Elvis” Rootical Sound - “Horny Dub” Hughie Izaachar - “Jungle Feva (Metics Vocal Mix)”