Release focus: The "Dub Affairs" Series + "ROHS! The Sound of Dub, Reggae, and Roots!"
(September 2024) - This is not a common newsletter
(remember: all our digital releases are available at the symbolic price of 1 EUR) rohsrecords.bandcamp.com
Dub Affairs Vol.1 (2015)
Dub techno... I'm glad it's seeing more and more limited releases on the likes of cassette and vinyl. Andrea Porcu's ROHS! is a label I like to believe I've written up a couple of times - I've written up a lot of albums/EPs and I'm old, so my memory's bound to be rough. Now, there is a reason this is just called Dub Affairs and not Dub Techno Affairs - some of these are borderline straight dub reggae which isn't bad at all. Zzzzra, Biodub, Xoki, Subset and to an extent Desove stick to dub techno while Hieronymus, Hemisphere Dub and Upwellings* veer towards the roots of where the genre hails from. If by chance you've never read/listened to anything I've written up before, you should know I'm a huge dub techno fan - there's dozens of us. Dub techno takes synthesized dub chords (usually minor chords) and puts them with (usually) four-to-the-floor pulsing drum beats. Something that doesn't look good on paper, but is executed better than you can imagine.
(words by Slyvinyl)
Dub Affairs Vol.2 (2016)
ROHS! Records' first Dub Affairs compilation won the hearts and minds of many dub techno devotees when it appeared back in 2015. This second volume follows a similar blueprint - think scratchy dub techno, drone-encrusted ambient dub and spacey, intergalactic compositions - and is every bit as essential as its predecessor. Highlights include the fluttering melody lines, ultra-deep sub bass and broken rhythms of Gulls' "Inside Way (Version)", the dreamy, slow and low shuffle of "Caligari's Dub" by Bademah, and the exotic, up-tempo dub-tronica of Ondarituale's vocal number "I Segreti Di Una Generazione Di Mezzo". Best of all, though, is arguably Mystica Tribe's "The Bells", a positively loved-up trip into global dub fusion.
(words by Juno Records)
Dub Affairs Vol.2 (2018)
Last year, we had ROHS! label head Andrea Porcu in an interview. Among other things, he got us quite curious about a 10-year ROHS! compilation, which is now finally about to be released – I’ve already had an early listen.
As is often the case with independent and DIY labels, something unexpected comes up. That’s what happened here too. As a result, the anniversary compilation is now being released with a long delay as Volume 3 of the popular Dub Affairs series, a series that leans more towards traditional dub while still staying true to ROHS!’s electronic ambient style. Many familiar faces are featured here, including Hemisphere Dub, with whom we previously worked on the Social Sounds CD. The Italian producer duo Babe Roots is also present with one of their best works to date. Paul St. Hilaire teams up with Mind Over MIDI on the chilled-out "Ital Swing." Our good friend Dub Across Borders is also featured, a very good choice 🙂. "Wagga Town" is yet another brilliant example of D.A.B.’s versatile production style and more than lives up to the artist's name. From Denmark, Hieronymus is also represented with one of his signature analog steppers.
(words by basscomesaveme.de)
"ROHS! The Sound of Dub, Reggae, and Roots!"
Desove “Cruising” Album (2015)
Hot riddims straight out of Bialystok, Poland.
Babe Roots ft. IXM “Dub Sessions” (2016)
The Sardinian ROHS! imprint based in Berlin, has cut two killer dubs from the depths of Babe Roots studio, served up in DIY style and fashion on a very limited vinyl-only run.
First up, is the Rhythm & Sound inspired ‘Jah Nuh Dub’ trodding in the lower regions of the sonic spectrum, submerged in bassline and distilled dubwise etiquette, with the filtered chords sprawling across the underbelly in the slow envelope of bass and drum, meditatively.
On the other side, is the real gem (if you ask us) – ‘Bless Dub’ is a monstrously deep version of The Revolutionaries classic ‘Kunta Kinte’.
This rhythm has been versioned a lot already, but Babe Roots interpretation is justified in it’s sense for deep soundsystem aesthetic, with a much more introspective yet equally uplifting edge… This one could also make some pretty serious vibrations on a big speaker – Beware.
(words by rwdfwd.com)
Desove "Dub Rhetorica” (2016)
Hot riddims straight out of Bialystok, Poland.
Docetism “Breast And Vulture” (2018)
~ "Breast and Vulture" was inspired by personification of "Nature" from "Iconologia" by Cesare Ripa (1560-1622). It was a very influential book containing emblematical representations of virtues, vices, passions and natural phenomena. Nature is depicted as a female figure with milk poring from her breasts and a vulture on her hand. This simple yet powerful image reaveals universal truth that life is accompanied by death, and death is accompanied by life. ~
Docetism “Golden Bough” (2018)
"The idea that the life of the oak was in the mistletoe was probably suggested, as I have said, by the observation that in winter the mistletoe growing on the oak remains green while the oak itself is leafless."
(James Frazer)
Mind over MIDI “Ital Swing” Versions
Next episode: "ROHS! The Sound of Dub & Techno!" (October 2024)
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