quête:dub one

solid white viny

There is big news from the camp at Greyscale Records. Greyscale #9 is here!! A well-respected veteran of the dub techno scene Upwellings (Vincent Raude), is the star of this show for the label's prominent's chapter of releases. Upwellings is not alone thought! #9 features stunning remixes by household names with Bluetrain (Steve O'Sullivan) and Ohm & Octal Industries makes this is one of the must have releases in 2023.

In true Upwellings form, 'Lark Dub' is a brisk and polished track that has a friendly groove that should delight all listener's while Bluetrain turns the remix to a more 4x4 affair naturally injecting it with a house flair. 'Fed on Dub' is a more stark contrast as the alternate featured track. Addictive sequenced sound elements combust like a scientific experiment gone awry. A deep groove that pulses heavy in the sub range. Ohm & Octal Industries up the tempo in their version while still relishing in the signature sound effects. Adding a bit of a melody in spaces brings in a beautiful soundscape and atmosphere to the overall shimmering track. To have all these excellent producers in support on one release is a true treat. Released on super clean white 180 gram vinyl as well as digital. This record will not leave your crate!

2023 Repress

What you have in your hand is Tappa Zukie's legendary 'Escape from Hell' album.
Originally released in 1977 as a dub follow up to Tapper's exceptional 1976 release 'Tappa Zukie in Dub' (JRLP044).
The 'In Dub' album was cut using the great talents of engineer Philip Smart, but when the tracks were pulled together for its follow up 'Escape to Hell' Philip Smart had left Jamaica for New York and his replacement at the controls was Prince Jammy.Who had just returned from Canada at the request of King Tubby himself.
The purpose was to fill Mr. Smarts position.
Tapper was definitely in good hands and at the time he would tell the Prince was soon to become King Jammy due to his outstanding studio work.
The 'Escape from Hell' set was initially overlooked more to the fact of the small numbers of its original pressing.The album makes great use of Tapper's extraordinary Channel One rhythms cut with Sly and Robbie's The Revolutionary's Band.
Great rhythms matched the magic from King Tubby's studio at the hands of Prince Jammy.
We added the cd release for this album and at Tappers request some alternative dubs and tracks that seem to compliment this set.
So drop the needle on this great album and judge for yourself..
....A FINE ALBUM CUT IN FINE STYLE...

Experience an experiment turned masterpiece…"York". Originally titled "NoYork" and slated to be the major label debut from acclaimed Los Angeles emcee Blu, this much-discussed collection was eventually renamed and (finally) released through Nature Sounds in 2013. The result was a certified classic that remains one of Blu’s most ambitious projects to date.

Infused with the electronic experimentation of the early 2000s L.A. beat scene, "York" covers a wide spectrum of sound, displaying the production of beat icons like Flying Lotus, Madlib, Exile, Dibia$e, Shafiq Husayn, Daedalus, Knxwledge, and Samiyam. Melding world-class lyricism with sonic textures encompassing psych rock, dub, broken beats, and jazz, the album strikes a unique balance between golden era hip-hop and eclectic futurism. Several guest artists helped Blu realize this vision, including U-God of Wu-Tang Clan, Edan, Sa-Ra, Pac Div, Suzi Analogue, U-N-I, J*Davey, and more.

With the original 4LP pressing long out of print, Nature Sounds is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of "York" with the release of this new redesigned gatefold 2LP edition.

Raising the bar yet again, Night Owls' first single of 2023 lays yet another set of classic soul songs on you, flipped into the band's signature style. On Side A we find The Flamingo's beloved Doo-Wop/soul hit from 1959, "I Only Have Eyes For You," re-imagined to wind your waistline with Night Owls' longtime friend and collaborator - the one-and-only Chris Dowd from Los Angeles' legendary Fishbone on vocals. Known for tunes like "Pouring Rain" and "Everyday Sunshine" Dowd brings his signature soul drenched delivery with a hint of rude boy grit to match the rhythmic and tonal stylings of the group. Wanting to take things to the next level, producer Dan Ubick called in veteran underground Jamaican legend Tippa Lee (Stones Throw, Dub Club, Jammy's, Greensleeves, etc.) to sprinkle his magic rasta dust on top and deejay/toast on the track and the results are burning hot.

But wait, that's not all!! On Side B we find the beloved beat diggers classic "Live And Let Live," originally performed by Jimmy Jones in 1970 on Deke Records out of Chicago. For the Fender Rhodes-driven reggaefied version here, Night Owls roped in another longtime friend - Los Angeles kingpin and mover ’n' shaker, "Music Man" Miles Tackett to add his soulful vocals to the track and it's as buttery as cornbread from Cracker Barrel! Tackett is the mastermind behind globe-trotting funk/soul collective Breakestra (of which Night Owl Dan Ubick was a member) and legendary weekly L.A. dance parties like Funky Sole, Root Down and The Breaks. This side also includes Destani Wolf, who many will remember was featured on Night Owls’ version of “Let’s Stay Together”, providing the beautiful ‘verbed out backing vocals.

It seems like an age since Icelandic producer Adalsteinn Gudmundsson's last album as Yagya, 2020's "Old Dreams and Memories." The first album to be released on his own label Small Plastic Animals it was followed by the four-track "Always Maybe Tomorrow" EP in 2021. "Faded Photographs" is his ninth studio album, the most involved and time-consuming project to date and collaborative on a scale not seen since 2012's "The Inescapable Decay of My Heart." It also marks an exceptionally confident return to the art of song-writing, but where that earlier album was a more upbeat dub techno-pop affair, "Faded Photographs" is nostalgic, wistful, reflective and steeped in poetic romanticism. Gudmundsson's love of the art of the album is also more pronounced here than ever before, almost every single track tied together by the particularly unifying use of triplet rhythms in combination with 4/4 beats, beguiling hushed vocals and enveloping, molten dub bass tones. Combined with a typical dedication to sound design and production, "Faded Photographs" is rendered an utterly seamless experience, demanding to be heard as a whole. Written and produced when we had become more distant and disconnected from one another than ever before, "Faded Photographs" brings together and showcases an ensemble of artists in a spirit of collaboration that flies in the face of adversity, a true product of its time.

Fusion Sequence is a new offshoot from the Mellophonia label that kicks off with a heavyweight release both literally - its 180g vinyl - and metaphorically. It features seven different artists offering up one track each on what is a widescreen exploration of fresh deep house. They are A Vision of Panorama, Eternal Love, Pool Boy, Wolfey, Laseech, Larry Quest and Jay Sound and between them everything from cuddly depths to more moody late-night deepness is covered on an EP that brings plenty of new perspectives. A fine inaugural 12", then.

Warm atmospheric Dub Techno w/ Vril & Sleeparchive remixes

Ground Groove, the third full-length release from the LA-based, Iranian-American producer and DJ, Maral, begins with an invocation: the sprawling, achingly heavy Feedback Jam opens the floodgates of history. Conventional (linear) spacetime collapses, crushed beneath the track’s lumbering 4/4 heartbeat and successive waves of distortion. As each wave recedes, samples trickle forward in the mix — seeking, perhaps, to fill the void. Voices and instruments rise and fall in uncanny reverse. Overlapping, implied melodies flicker into focus, then flit away. Feedback Jam is at once an initiation ritual, and a thesis statement for the record that follows.

Drawing upon a vast personal archive of Iranian folk, classical, and pop recordings (some sourced from mixtapes made by her parents in the eighties/nineties), Maral presents, on Ground Groove, a further refinement of the signature “folk club” sound she developed as a live DJ— a sound she would later codify on Mahur Club (2019) and Push (2020). By collecting, dissecting, and re/presenting sonic fragments from Iran, Maral practices a kind of dance-floor ethnomusicology. The subject of her inquiry: Iranian


culture and contexts, throughout history and in the present. But, crucially, this inquiry is instantiated within and throughout the body of the listener, whether this listener is dancing in the club, or riding the train, nodding along with headphones on.

Maral speaks of being in collaboration with her samples, treating each as a distinct bandmate, often consulting with an artist’s catalog (or even a single recording) as one would a trusted creative partner. In so-doing, Maral claims to seek to transcend the self. In this regard, her output neatly triangulates contemporary dance and heavy music with much of the traditional religious music that she samples. Broadly speaking, each of these idioms addresses a desire —shared by audience and performer alike—to transcend the self through volume, repetition, and movement.

Having, in her youth, studied the Setar under Nader Majd (the founder of Virginia’s Center for Persian Classical Music), Maral cycled through various genres (ex: punk, emo, dub) in her adolescence and early twenties, all the while expanding her knowledge of, and appreciation for, Iran’s diverse musical traditions during regular summer trips to Tehran. In college, Maral taught herself to make beats with a ripped copy of Ableton (which remains her DAW of choice), eventually transitioning to playing and hosting various club nights. Forever abiding by an autodidactic, DIY impulse to create art and foster community, Maral relocated to Los Angeles in 2013, where she quickly immersed herself in the city’s numerous overlapping music scenes.

Collaboration (beyond sampling) has proven an important component of her process, with notable spoken word contributions from the likes of Lee Scratch Perry and Penny Rimbaud, as well as a 2021 Panda Bear collab track (On Your Way), which the Animal Collective founder co-produced. Maral is equally attentive to the visual components of her records (album art, music videos, etc.), drawing upon the work of peers and friends for inspiration.

Indeed, the genesis of Ground Groove can be traced back to an audio-visual collaboration between Maral and the artist Brenna Murphy, originally commissioned for the 2021 Rewire Festival — a project that would eventually serve as the album’s foundation. Tracks eight through eleven on Ground Groove comprise Maral’s half of this installation, with tracks one through seven composed afterwards, inspired by the fruits of Maral and Murphy’s collaboration. Murphy’s visuals will be released alongside Ground Groove as a visual accompaniment. Additionally, Murphy designed the album’s art, directed the video for the lead single (the aforementioned Feedback Jam), and is featured on track six, Shy Night.

Composed largely on Ableton, Ground Groove features more frequent and more prominent live recordings from Maral (guitar, bass, and vocals) than either Push or Mahar Club. The cult favorite Roland MC-909 groovebox rears its head on Mari’s Groove. Mixed by Trayer Tryon (Hundred Waters) and mastered by Daddy Kev, the attention to sonic quality on Ground Groove constitutes another significant step in Maral’s development as a studio artist.

Ground Groove’s eleven tracks are “grooves” in the obvious sense, in that they are each driven by a persistent, propulsive rhythm, but the album’s title may just as well suggest the glacial passage of time—the scope of human history, in which individual voices, like streams, carve paths (impossibly) through earth and stone, winding their way to the vast sea of the present.

Originally recorded at Channel One UK around 1990, the master tape was accidentally wiped and lost. The full riddim was rebuilt from the original drums at Seventh Sense Studio, and has now been updated at Earth Works Amsterdam with additional instruments including a great brass section.


In late 2020 Tena Stelling stapped back up to the microphone and re-voiced this lost classic. Jah Works is delighted to present the resulting fresh-vintage anthem, that remains as relevant as it was when it was first voiced 30 years ago, if not more so.

Taka Noda AKA Mystica Tribe has been releasing deep music on vinyl since 2011 on labels including SD Records, Solar Phenomena, Silent Season, and his own Mystica Tribe Records. Working in the dub/techno continuum, he is one of only a handful of artists who creates brilliant tunes at both ends of the spectrum, from heavy, psychedelic warehouse techno to beautifully orthodox reggae-infused dubwise. For his first ZamZam, he leans hard into the latter.

Noda describes his approach to these tunes as a “virtual live band,” and while “the only real live instrument is the melodica, I wanted to capture the energy of a live band with this song.”

A master of both melody and rhythm, Noda does exactly that with “Ido” (which means a well for water). The mood hits immediately with a loose & confident groove built from impossibly-live sounding drum work, a perfect orthodox bassline, and achingly beautiful interplay between piano, clav, and melodica. Somehow both melancholy and bright, it captures that moment when winter gives way to the first hint of spring, sun finally breaking through clouds after months of rain and darkness.

Rather than a simple dub of the A side, the version is a complete rebuild of the tune. “Ido - Renren Version” (which means flowing like tears, or a river) drops the tempo down to 120 but goes harder rhythmically in spite of its slower tempo. Opening with a stark, dark, and menacingly driving bassline and warped dub siren, the vibe is completely transformed from above-ground to below. Hard percussion, new melodica parts, and 4-4 hats & kick take it into that full post-punk dub territory that the world needs more of. Much more!!

Mood II Swing classic from 94... Often imitated never bettered.
Contains the epic Mood II Swing dub - one of their best Dub's of all time plus all the original mixes.

If you don't own a copy of this now if your chance to have this benchmark in house music's history.

Beautifully re mastered and repressed for 2015 in conjunction with King Street Sounds.

NYC's Disco powerhouse West End Records should need no intro. The home of too-numerous-to-list club classics for over 30+ years is still impacting today on what we know to be club culture. The label started by one Mel Cheren (RIP) with assistance from Larry Levan and more way back in 1976 is still held in such high regard today with it's catalogue constantly being played, rediscovered, reinterpreted and loved by waves and waves of new fans and admirers. One such admirer is one of the UK's longest serving DJ's and editors, a truly legendary Northern selector who's unique reel to reel DJ sets and reworks has gained him fans worldwide and continues to do so. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Greg Wilson's West End versions, 4 tracks of unparalleled funk touched by the man himself who has also kindly supplied some choice words about this special release:

"West End has a particular place in my heart. Along with Prelude, it was my main go-to label during the early '80s, an underground New York powerhouse issuing a relentless run of now classic and cult-classic club cuts during the time I was DJing at Legend in Manchester. For me personally, the label is forever connected with this then futuristic venue, West End's progressive approach to dance music, incorporating electronic elements to play a key role in ushering in the Electro-Funk era, finding its perfect environment at Legend, with tracks by Stone, and especially the Peech Boys' hugely influential 'Don't Make Me Wait', providing major stepping stones. This is a project that holds a deeper resonance for me, given my personal relationship with the label, and I'm so happy to contribute the series; the 4 favourites tracks I selected for this release illustrating West End's best qualities - serious grooves and soulful vocals.

The edit of 'You Can't Take Your Cake And Eat It Too' by B.T. (Brenda Taylor) was originally featured on my first Credit To The Edit compilation, back in 2005, whilst Raw Silk's 'Do It To The Music' was also edited around the same period, but has never been made available until now. 'Keep On Dubbin'' by Forrrce, although not as big as the other inclusions at the time, was an ahead of its time hybrid, mixed by Francois Kevorkian, whose dub awakening had taken place the previous year, and Shirley Lites 'Heat You Up (Melt You Down)', which draws from the instrumental 'Melt Down Mix', the version of choice at Legend, where dub and instrumental mixes often trumped the main vocal versions"

A truly golden era of dance music history, all killer - no filler! All tracks featured re-edited by Greg Wilson and re-mastered, re-pressed and re-released with the permission of and in conjunction with West End Records, New York City / BMG. '

Hotflush Recordings celebrates 20 years in the game this year, with a triple pack vinyl compilation featuring some of the key musical events in the label’s catalogue.

Born in 2003, Hotflush stands as one of electronic music’s most influential labels. A multi-dimensional imprint that helped define the development of bass music throughout the mid-2000s, in the last decade it would evolve towards the liminal spaces between house, techno, and beyond - a journey which has given the dancefloor some of its true underground classics.

This celebratory release covers every era and stylistic area of the Hotflush output. 2005’s proto-dubstep face melter ‘The Knowledge’ by Toasty kicks off Side A, with the key sides of bass music development all covered with tracks from James Blake, Loefah, Sepalcure, and Scuba.

UK techno legend Surgeon appears with his seminal remix of Scuba’s ‘Ruptured’ (2008), while the early Paul Woolford classic ‘MDMA’ reminds us of how ended up working with Diplo.

George FitzGerald and Recondite reprise some of their key formative material, while newer names Lawrence Hart, OR:LA and breakout Seoul artist Closet Yi also make appearances.

Canadian mastermind Jacques Greene rounds off the release with his slamming remix of Kiimi’s Breaking My Mind.

This is a compilation 20 years in the making, containing some of the key tracks from the electronic underground - curated and compiled by label boss Scuba.

Freestyle puts out another reissue 12" in their drive to unearth rare and classic UK funk, soul & boogie records - this time a much needed pressing of the late Candy McKenzie's heavy boogie-funk cover of Patrice Rushen's classic Remind Me. Produced by Candy's late cousin, and seasoned session bass player, John McKenzie (and licensed from the family estate) this was originally released in 1983 - and comes with an excellent dubbed-out 'Different Style' instrumental version on the flip.

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Candy McKenzie (1953-2003) was a North West London-based vocalist from a Guyanese family heavily steeped in musicianship . She began learning the piano at a young age, picking up vocal harmony from her father, a jazz bass player. Her brothers Bunny & Binky, were also celebrated bassists. Candy would marry young in 1970 at the age of 17, though just one year later her brother Binky (who played with the likes of Cream, Alexis Korner & John Mclaughlin in the late 60s) tragically killed her mother and father, along with Candy's husband in an attack at the family home to which Candy was present. Candy was also injured but escaped with her life.

In the years that followed the tragedy Candy, regularly accompanied by her brother Bunny, would find reggae vocal session work - often at the Chalk Farm Studios frequented by many key producers & acts. She found her way onto Aswad's first album and Keith Hudson's legendary Flesh Of My Skin Blood Of My Blood LP - and a little while later on a couple of sessions with Bob Marley for Island, under the supervision of Lee Perry.

The latter two parties took a keen interest in Candy, with Island wisking her away to Jamaica in 1977 to record an album at the legendary Black Ark. Her vocals found their way onto The Congos seminal Heart of the Congos LP, but the album she recorded with Perry was shelved - with just the Black Art holy grail 12" Disco Fits / Breakfast in Bed finding it's way to release at the time.

Back in London, Candy spent the early to mid 80s recording various lovers and funk/soul 12"s, including this fantastic cover of Patrice Rushen's Remind Me, produced by her cousin John. She went on to record singles for labels like Elite & Cooltempo throughout the '80s and early '90s, and appeared as backing vocalist with the likes of Leonard Cohen, Whitney Houston, Elton John and Diana Ross. She passed away in 2003, with her one and only album recorded at the Black Ark finally seeing release on Trojan in 2011.

Candy's cousin John McKenzie got his starts in the music industry in the mid 70s as part of prog group Man and communal festival rockers Global Village Trucking Co., as well as playing with the likes of Annette Peacock and Steve Hillage. His father Mike McKenzie was also a key Carribbean jazz figure in the UK throughout the early 1950s, through to the '60s and '70s. John would become a heavily in-demand session musician - playing with everyone from the Eurhythmics to Bob Dylan - while also finding time to produce this record, alongside a couple of excellent 12"s with Mel Gaynor as Finesse, between 1982 and '83. He would regularly tour the world as a live musician for a huge array of headline acts, appearing on multiple chart hits, and in his later years was a member of the excellent group Ibibio Sound Machine. He lost his battle with cancer in 2020.

This reissue is dedicated to the memory of both John & Candy McKenzie.

"El Pasaje del Aumento" is a collection of syncopated rhythms for hypnotic slow dance. An accident of oppressive atmospheres with a humorous sense of rhythm and composition, which moves between downtempo, African rhythms and dub. With a certain oriental softness, it introduces you into a state of enchantment, spell... a hypnotic and mysterious restlessness, almost uncomfortable. Sentuhlà squeezes his Yamaha Rm1x on this second album, creating rhythms that you would never believe possible with a single synthesizer. He spins, twists and strangles it to the limit, til getting the last drop of frequency and oscillation.

Without too obvious references, it recalls the rhythms of Toulouse Low Trax or Wolf Müller, the experimentation of Muslimgauze, the repetition of Huerco S... But if you ask Sentuhlà himself, he will also mention Fela Kuti, Sun Ra, Can, Cabaret Voltaire, Tom Zé or Lee Scratch Perry...

Sentuhlà is one of the many aliases of musical jack of all trades José Guerrero, a long-standing figure in the already rich underground scene of Valencia. In this solo excursion, he explores the vast possibilities of mechanical repetition, the machine funk of dirtbag rhythms, and proper boogie DIY synth music, sculpting a syncopated sound that is both modern and atavistic. Coming from a deep knowledge and ability to communicate very diverse sounds, slow jams unfold into dance music for clear-eyed lounge lizards for whom sleaze comes not dizzy but focused. Whitened African rhythms beat up no-wave disco pleasure points, managing the hard task of being very cool and nonchalant, but also hot and dedicated.

The friendship between Al Cisneros (Sleep/Om) and Kevin Martin (The Bug/King Midas Sound) begun when King Midas Sound supported OM at the Scala in London in 2012. Subsequently the duo quickly realised via passionately animated conversations, that they shared a serous addiction to reggae 7", and in particular, a mutually insatiable appetite for roots and the deepest dub versions being consistently transmitted from Jamaica...This resulted in Cisneros, then inviting Martin to specifically drop hardcore dub sessions as support to Sleep in Berlin, and on tour with OM. It was during the European Om tour in 2019, that Cisneros offered to record an ep for The Bug's fledgling PRESSURE label. And now 'Rosin' is the fulfilment of that promise. Al's side of the single, showcases the low end specialist extending the bassbin pounding methodologies of those incredible b-line masters who first inspired him to relentlessly explore the infinitely resonant worlds of bass and space. So 'Rosin Immersion' and it's subsequent dub 'Dabby You', echo 'Flabba Holt's classic work with the Roots Radics or Robbie Shakespeare 's tremendous output for Channel One with The Revolutionaries...These devastating mixes extend the hallowed roots tradition that Cisneros worships, and gleefully opts for an even lower, slower, grind .... It's another fantastic example of Al's parallel dub world, that he has been tirelessly promoting with his incredible Sinai label releases for the past few years, as he simultaneously continues to reshape Metal with Sleep and zoned 'out' rock with Om too. On the flipside, Martin took up Al's invitation to remix his original song, but Kevin here opts for radical mutation instead of homage. What may have begun as a single remix, ends as two militantly distinct future dubs aimed straight at the body and dome...Echoing Kevin's recent collaborations with Will Bevan aka Burial, for their collaborative Flame series, as previously released on PRESSURE, this pair of thundering tracks reflect The Bug at his most immersive and psychedelic. 'Fathoms' and '50 hz' revel in their otherness, and the sonic sorcery of his Brussels based sound lab. The twin rhythms are undoubtedly inspired by the spirit of The Bug's production heroes Scientist, King Tubby or Adrian Sherwood, but are set adrift in a futuristic sci-fi format for ambient heads and sound system disciples alike to get fully lost in.

Unstoppable Chicago house tour de force Boo Williams has one of the most recognisable sounds in the scene but always manages to say new things with it. This time out he takes care of a 50th release on the Boo Moonman label. It kicks off with some tech-leaning grooves that swing back and forth underneath cosmic pad work. 'Limited Time' is a more percussive and laid-back vibe, with deep house chords and jazzy feelings. 'Emergency Teck' then comes in two further versions - one acid one, and one beat tool for layering up your sets. It makes for another timeless outing from this vital house voice.

1971 and Black America was luxuriating in the soft soul
of the O’Jays, the Temptations had just left behind their
flirtation with psychedelia, James Brown was
explaining Soul Power, Sly & the Family Stone were
having a Family Affair, and Marvin Gaye was asking
‘What’s Going On’.
• In their own inimitable way, Funkadelic were laying
down their own statement about the ecology of the
planet in the opening of lead and title track ‘Maggot
Brain’, turning it into an elegy for the Earth in the
ensuing heart-wrenching extended Eddie Hazel guitar
solo – one of the most radical records of the period.
• The album also spawned two Top 50 singles with the
usual Funkadelic wry observational humour of ‘You
And Your Folks, Me And My Folks’ and ‘Can You Get To
That’. And just in case you think things have
normalised, the set closes with nine minutes of the
chaotic sound collage ‘Wars Of Armageddon’.
• This 50th anniversary edition includes a second 12”
with two versions of the title track. Side A features the
live version from Meadowbrook from the same year that
the studio album came out. Jump forward 46 years to
the “Reworked by Detroiters” release and side B has
the BMG Dub, showing the enduring quality of one of
the great guitar records of all time.
• This issue is mastered from fresh transfers of the tape.
• Facsimile gatefold sleeve.
• 180gram black vinyl

Emotional Rescue turn their attention to Rare Silk and their sublime cult classic "Storm". It's one of those rare tracks with a wonderful otherworldly quality that manages to be smooth and accessible, and somehow not like anything you've ever heard before. It must be somewhere in the mix, between the dreamy harmonized vocals, lush instrumentation and curious sense of space. The original on the A side is a treat enough, but then throw in a mercurial dubbed out version by Arp on the flip and you've got yourself a 12 inch portal to a most delightful dimension.