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The London studio sound creators Urban Dub
have been making records together for only 10 years. However the
individual members histories are almost as long as Mad Frankie Fraser's
Prison Record. Masterminded by trombonist, keyboardist and dub effects mixer
Mr. Roopie, their music brings a new angle to underground dub - a scene
which has been constantly evolving from the days of Lee Perry through
to Goa Trance and beyond. Their audience comprises clubbers as well
as dreads and ropeheads. They produce vocal tracks performed by
a variety of singers, as well as instrumentals.
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Mister Roopie
started releasing records by making White Labels during the
1989 Second Summer of Love. Previously he had been a jobbing
guitarist and keyboard player, plying his trade in the mad squat
party scene of the 1980's. Then in 1989 Acid House took over
and he joined a dj and studio crew called Jump. His House Music
career ended abruptly in about 1994 when he went to the Ministry
of Sound, having been tipped off that a dj from Plastic Fantastic
was dropping one of his White Labels on the main dance floor
that holds a thousand, but he was denied admission for wearing
jeans and trainers. The House Music scene, which had been conceived
as a haven for all, had degenerated in to a dress-coded nightmare
sponsored by capitalists. Disillusioned, he had to rediscover
himself musically. He managed to contact a legendary German
jazz pianist called Robert Nacken. They collaborated and then
went on to get a track on "Penny Black Breakage Volume 1" (
a Who's Who of the mid nineties Jazz Drum 'n' Bass Scene). But
the troubled muso still couldn't find that happy haven for all
on the drum 'n' bass circuit. |
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He decided that
the atmosphere for which he was searching was in the Dubbers
community. He joined Dubwise Productions and started doing roots
music collaborating with Dubwise's Chris Jay. He worked with
reggae singers such as Junior Murvin and Winston Fergus. Eventually
Urban Dub formed in 1999 and Roop has been a leading member
ever since. Devouring musical genres as he goes, Roop continues
his lurching run through the small credit print of one's CD
collection. He also produced "BigFoot" on the Compilation Album
"Garage Dubs" on the Free Radical Sounds record label along
with Clive Austen and Electric Medicine.
Check out our interview with Roop here. |
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Doctor Becca - describes herself as being "like a social anthropologist." She sings with
the Urban Dub Live Soundsytem. She used to be signed with Perception Records
when she worked with Depeche Mode. She observes people's behaviour, and then says things to them
that make them feel good about themselves. Hopefully, they then set off down the right road or,
at least, the road most appropriate for that individual.
Check out our interview with Doctor Becca here. |
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The Mystic Guru has the dual role within the
Urban Dub Crew of playing the guitar and also interpreting oracles from the gods that
can direct the band as to which path to take to follow their quests and missions.
Will emerged from the forests around the time of the Cro-Magnon era.
This guy makes Rasputin look like a total square. What is more, he’s the only one
in the band who’s ever read books, so he must be the most intelligent.
Check out our interview with The Mystic Guru here. |
Stefanie Cayless
- growing up in a rough neighbourhood in London caused Stefi Kay to be
a feisty streetfighter from an early age. However, as a teenager she became a jazz purist
and set out to seek her fortune by stowing away on a cargo ship bound for the other side of
the world…. Arriving in New Zealand aged only 17, she rapidly established herself as a
trend-setter in the mad trustafarian fashion world of the Auckland homemade street bazaar
in which vagabonds sold their wares in the remote antipodean settlement. Having lived there
for only a few years, she suddenly received a cosmic intervention from Mother Nature which
was telling Stefi to up-sticks and return home to London. She finally struck gold and
became a superstar by grabbing the microphone at the Dub Versus Punk Anti-Racism Showdown
at the Ruskin Arms in East Ham. The crowd went mad and Urban Dub were forced to keep her
on as leading lady from that day to this. Combining elements of urban fusion and dub reggae,
Stefanie Cayless’s vocals provide a unique melody to the already exotic sound of the Urban
Dub Live Sound System.
Check out our interview with Stefanie Cayless here. |
Nick
Richards is also known as Vickram Sir Lanky or Lord Skaman.
He emerged from the east London street music scene with a bang in the late 1990s. Previously he
had spent many years busking at the Columbia Road Flower Market dressed only in rags like a
character from Charles Dickens’s “Oliver Twist”. However, his ability to turn his hand to any musical
instrument including penny whistle, ukulele, vibraphone, guitar, mandolin, trumpet or melodica enabled
Nick to hit the big time when he linked up with the Urban Dub Crew. Nick Richards has got Hackney
written all over him. The giant in the world of jazz is too cool for words. After years of musical
chairs, Nick decided to forsake all other lovers for his true love – his trombone.
He says this is because he received a divine calling from the ghost of the great Jamaican
trombonist Don Drummond of the Skatalites. Finally he has found his true vocation! Writing tuneful
melodies is second nature to Nick because he has got funk flowing through his veins. His onstage
presence is immense.The audience initially stops to stare
in disbelief at the weird and wonderful playing of this strange fruit. He's easy to spot
on stage (and off!) as he is all of six foot six inches tall.
Slowly the audience falls in to
a trance and cannot prevent their bodies from gyrating in an uncoordinated perverse dance which
sends them whirling uncontrollably in to the kaleidoscopic zone. In addition to his hectic Urban
Dub recording and gigging schedule, Nick is the trombonist with the Skamonics; a nine-piece
full-on authentic ska band available for parties, weddings, barmitzvahs, etc.
Nick is also a part-time member of The Fairies, the backing band for the American singer/songwriter
Art Terry who has his own show on Resonance FM called "Is Black Music". Nick has also performed
regularly with the innovative hiphop band August. He also plays straight jazz and is currently
occupying the third trombone chair in the City Lit big band. He likes listening to classical
music as long as it's German. He is originally from Liverpool but has been resident in London now
for over ten years.
Nick is also a very talented visual artist and designer.
Check
out our interview with Nick Richards here. |
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| Clive
Austen has engineered and mixed for Urban Dub for the last
five years. His "War (In Dub)" mix by Urban Dub on the Compilation
Album "A Dubber's Guide" on the Dubhead Record Label is firm
favourite. Clive and his crew, including Smart Monkey, were
responsible for the illegal raves back in the day that occurred
all along the South Kent Coast. Clive has produced
Noise records, the sound of which emerged from the nether world
of dives such as the Dublin Castle, Camden
or the Hope and Anchor, Islington where nutters have been known
to set up Heath Robinson electronics and feed it with high voltages
directly from the National Grid to achieve sonic destruction.
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Terry
Edwards is an occasional collaborator with Urban Dub. The
East End Cockney Geezer plays trumpet, alto sax, tenor sax and
keyboards. Having produced the Snuff album "Blue Gravy Phase
Nine", he was involved in the recording of the album "Snuff
vs Urban Dub - Blue Gravy Dub Versions". He also played brass
on "Gonna Rise", the 2002 Urban Dub 10" vinyl. Terry
is interviewed by Free Radical Sounds' Louise Woodford at the
end of this link. |
Hieronymus describes himself as a part-time
member of Urban Dub. He is currently working with the Urban Dub
crew on a new album. He has toured
the world with hundreds of bands as the front-of-house sound man.
He co-wrote “Thin Air” on the Urban Dub featuring Fairshare Unity
Sound Album, as well as being largely responsible for the unique
sound of that album which he says he “achieved by riding the faders
during live mixing.”
The
Dutch mega mixer is interviewed here |
Marjorie Paris
is Urban Dub's classically-trained composer. She brings
a bit of style and melody to the Urban Dub crew. Hailing from
Rive-de-Gier in the South of France, she is a former member
of the Vincent D'Inly Symphonic Orchestra in which she played
tenor sax, baritone sax, drums, timpani and vibraphone. She
progressed to playing Big Band Music in and around St. Etienne.
She traveled as far as Tunisia, searching for the key to good
jazz. She always has a note book handy in to which you will
see her jotting down melodies in classical five bar notation.
She became moved by the music of Schonberg and Iannis Xenakis
and decided that her vocation was to aid primary school children
to discover the joys of electro-acoustic melody. However something
came over her in 1998 when she suddenly decided to up sticks
and move to London to become a Rastafarian. It seems she felt
that she had been neglecting her African heritage. She started
listening to hiphop, ragga and roots. She was hanging out in
dub studios like Conscious Sounds in Dalston, where she recorded
saxophone on great records like "Across The Borderline " by
Winston Fergus.She worked with dub
legends like Hughie Isaaca and Dougie Waldrop.She met Roop through
Winston Fergus when they recorded "Praise Him" at Bflat Studios.
She has also recorded for NW10 Records which is the definitive
sound of Harlesden Yoot. Now increasingly influenced by the
jazz of people like Ernest Ranglin, she has found Urban Dub
to be the forum for her talent. Watch out for her "Emperor Dub"
on the album "Snuff vs Urban Dub - Blue Gravy Dub Versions"
on Ten Past Twelve Records.
Check out our interview with Marjorie Paris here. |
Urban Dub are now recording their fifth album. The
first, simply entitled "Urban Dub", is on the Dubhead Record Label.
The second is a remix album for the punk band Snuff. It's called
"Snuff vs Urban Dub - Blue Gravy Dub Versions". It is on Ten Past
Twelve Records. The third is "Urban Dub featuring Fairshare Unity
Sound"and the fourth is "Illegal Immigrants". Urban Dub are constantly on tour and have played at hundreds
of prestigious venues and festivals including Band-On-The Wall in
Manchester, The Leppakosken Rytmi Festival in Finland, Coldfest
in Norwich, Concorde 2 in Brighton, The Cartoon in Croydon, Festival
de Jazz de Rive de Gier in France, The Charlotte in Leicester, The
Leadmill in Sheffield, Llangollen Fringe Festival, Derby Ecofest,
The MayDay Eve Festival in Milton Keynes, Dedbeat 04 in Hemsby,
The Cologne Summer Festival, LA2 in London, Moles in Bath, The Cavern
Club in Exeter, The Exeter Phoenix, Club X in Bournemouth, Klubi
in Tampere, Tramps in Plymouth, Wedfest and FireworxFest in Norfolk,
The Annual Cannabis March and Festival
in London, Rastaplas in Zoetermeer in The Netherlands, Bruce Castle Carnival in London
and many more that they
were too out of it to remember!
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