Echo Chamber

A roadtrip-zonked Dr. Strangedub sat this one out and handed the reins of The Echo Chamber over to the Swissmeister this week.Yeah, this playlist looks short, but that’s ‘cuz it’s got some really lo-o-o-ong tunes in it, including the 13+min. stretcher “Ethiopia/The Lower Ground” from Bill Laswell’s “Book of Exit: Dub Chamber 4” as well as some epic Orb, and reggae discomix showcase business from both Joe Gibbs and Greensleeves. Add in a couple of choice Waveform goodies from International Observer and Warp Technique, plus some live on-air mixology layering rhythmic Kev Hopper over some quite ambient Ben Neill for a good 4+min. (leading into the aforementioned Warp Technique) and a couple of newly-hatched Froggies made their EC debut, including “The Eye of Cyclophibius” and the Eastern-flavored ska thing that wrapped up the show. And that, dubheads, is the lo-o-o-ong and short of it. The Doc’ll be back next week.

Once again…opening the floodgates of new releases. Starting things off with the highly anticipated Rebel Massive album from Dubmatix – which features Horace Andy, Eek-a-Mouse, U Roy & Cornel Campbell, Prince Jazzbo, and Tenor Fly. This was followed up by the excellent new Signs & Wonders In Dub from Dub Club (Tom Chasteen & Tippa Lee) on Stones Throw Records; Grant Phabao presents The Jays Stepping Up In Time and from the archive, Black Roots’ self-titled album (on Bristol Archives/Nubian). On top of this were fine new releases from The Lions, Manudub, Malika Madremana, Los Transatlanticos, Eric St-Laurent Trio, David Powell (unreleased single passed to me), Celt Islam, Rocio y Su Sonora, Oil City Boom Sound, Afrokeys, Zion Dirty Sound, DJ Zdena (unreleased single passed to me), John Brown’s Body, Ducki, and Dub Caravan meets Hornsman Coyote. Also tonight we played a 3-track SOJA set to celebrate their Minneapolis show on 5/8. Finally, rounding out the show with Yes King, Yellowman, Ego-Wrappin’, Monty Alexander, Ken Boothe, BDLabs, The Silvertones, Cedric Im Brooks, and more… This show is dedicated to Cedric Im Brooks who passed away on May 3rd.

Tonight, to culminate National Poetry Month, the Echo Chamber presented the annual “Word Beat I Powa” dub poetry, beat poetry, hip-hop poetry, and spoken word special. Of course, it was dub poetry that set the foundation of the show. And at the base of that foundation tonight was the great poet Mutabaruka – who appeared On April 9th of this year at Macalester College, in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Caribbean Students Association of Macalester presented “Resisting Oppression program: JaMinn with Rastafarian Poet Mutabaruka”. An excerpt of his performance shows up in a very special “Word Sound I Powa” half-hour mix put together by artist & friend of the show Eggblood. Also, Dr. StrangeDub’s interview of Muta from the same night is also part of the program.

Among the other dub poets featured were Jazzmin Tutum, Yasus Afari, Oku Onoura, Haji Mike (with Dub Caravan), Spaceape (with Dub Gabriel), Ras Takura, Oliver Smith, Jean Binta Breeze, Malachi Smith, and of course, the incomparable Linton Kwesi Johnson. But there was much more than dub poetry… From the Beat camp we had Jack Kerouac, and Umar Bin Hassan (of The Last Poets) joined Qaballah Steppers with “Trust” in Eggblood’s mix. Other voices included Ken Nordine’s unique ‘word jazz’; the powerful words and music of Liberian born artist/poet (and KFAI DJ), e.g. bailey; and The Last Skeptik (ft. Jehst) with the fresh track “Lullaby” (on BBE Records). Ahh, but let us not forget the extraordinary Jamaican DJs. Before there was dub poetry as we know it today, there was already the great tradition of Jamaican “toasters”. DJ Baby Swiss highlighted the art of toasting with I-Roy, Nica Smart, Rhoda Dakar, Ranking Roger, Clint Eastwood & General Saint, Ranking Ann, and George Nooks & Trinity, and StrangeDub added U-Roy (with Horace Andy). Heck, we even had a few snippets from Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe, and Walter Cronkite. What an eclectic mix of words…and beats…and Powa!