That white man. In NYC.
What are we to think of the white man who deftly weaves eloquent Tabla phrases over break beats, or the Puerto Rican Jazz dancer who incorporates Bharatanatyam moves into hybrid choreography, or the rap producer who samples an old Bollywood favorite into a bumping Hip hop track?..
The stifling political correctness of the 1990’s would have us point our fingers and cry out “appropriation” with all the self-righteousness an exploited minority can muster, but the days when such accusations held any kind of power are fading fast. In a world rapidly growing more connected, cultures overlap everywhere, and each and every one of us is a mishmash of international flavors and assorted styles. It is the mark of a truly cosmopolitan consciousness that enables people to incorporate elements from a diverse variety of traditions into their aesthetic, but it is surprisingly rare to find an artist who can do so eloquently without overstepping their creative license. With the recent release of his second album “Bass Jihad”, Brooklyn’s Dub Gabriel demonstrates that ethnic music and electronica are not discrete genres but are in fact intertwined development lines that are destined to coalesce as organic instruments and digital machines grow increasingly integrated in the work of progressive musicians everywhere.



Album: Ascend
Who is Dub Gabriel? Exactly what kind of artist puts out an album under the loaded moniker of “Bass Jihad”? 2003 marked the appearance of “Ascend,” Dub Gabriel’s first solo album on Baboon Records, but he has been an active player on New York City’s music scene for far longer. As a working element of groups such as the Samsara Sound System and the Qaballa Steppers, and a collaborator with such talented producers as Bill Laswell and Dr.Israel, Gabriel has been at the forefront of a fresh wave of reggae-infused electronica emerging out of New York City in recent years. There is an evolving aesthetic emerging from this group of artists, a sound that weaves Middle Eastern rhythms, Asian and African instrumentation, Jamaican DJ techniques, and Drum n’ Bass breaks together into a distinct cosmopolitan blend that cannot be pigeonholed into any one genre or category. Dub Gabriel’s music evokes a vivid landscape of earthy urban hues, providing a densely textured audio portrait of the vibrant multicultural bazaar that is the borough of Brooklyn.
Both “Bass Jihad” and “Ascend” are albums with a shifting center of gravity, whose locus moves from the Arab world to the east Indies and beyond, over the course of the records and sometimes even within a single track. The BPMs migrate as well, moving from slow dubbed out mood pieces to haunting jungle anthems, with mid-tempo break beat explorations and dark instrumentals crafting a consistently ominous ambiance. These are not necessarily pleasant records, in the sense of suggesting a happy audio environment, but they are adroit demonstrations of production techniques and the songs are abstract enough in tone that the listener is left to draw their own conclusions from the experience of the music. Regardless of the emotional content of the music, the structures of the tracks themselves are quite interesting.


Dub Gabriel is online - catch him at www.dubgabriel.net
Visit Derek Beres' Global Beat Fusion to check out more photos of Dub Gariel chillin in Brooklyn, and umm, hanging with his dog.
You can check out Dub Gabriel’s “Bass Jihad” on XM Satellite Radio’s great station “Dubwise” as well as buy the new Dub Gabriel album @ amazon.com or digitally on I-Tunes!!
Through all the songs there is a masterful deployment of reverb washes and careful echo effects that is rooted in the way Jamaican DJs rewind records in heavily delayed spin-backs. Dub Gabriel’s stylized use of these techniques is flawless, and these recordings are dripping “wet” with thick layers of reverb coloring every element in the mix. The few vocals to be found on the album are sparse and filtered through similar delays and plug-ins, which makes both records mind-altering voyages through dubbed out refrains and loopy riffs. Some of the highlights on these disks include the way the wind instruments have been recorded, which lends an airy quality to the tracks and lets the arrangements they appear in breathe and feel spacious. The panning schemes are also incredibly elaborate and each element is deliberately positioned in the mix for a very specific impact within the vast panoramas of stereo surround sound. Beats move back and forth, voices sweep from left to right, abrasive textures migrate to the forefront and then recede, all of which make these records a guilty pleasure to listen to through headphones. What sounds good in closed speakers also translates incredibly well on club systems, and spinning these tracks out fills rooms with a deep, tangible sense of being part of a moving, living landscape. This is painstakingly constructed music rooted in a vantage point that makes anyone who hears it perk up their ears.


Album: Bass Jihad
The first time I listened to “Bass Jihad” was at my useless corporate day job, at the tail end of a long day, after 5 pm had come and gone and I found myself still tied to my desktop laboring over unfinished documents. As the pensive, brooding bass line to “Musique De L’Ame” kicked through my desktop computer’s lone speaker, the cleaning guy came by to empty my trash, and stood transfixed at my door for a good few minutes listening to the track unfold its surreal magic. “What kind of music is THAT?” The curious, intrigued expression on his face said it all. “I don’t know,” I answered, “It’s world beat electronica, the album’s called ‘Bass Jihad.’” He looked at me with raised eyebrows, listened for a little bit longer, obviously enchanted, and then turned and went on his way. Everyone who I’ve since shared the disk with has said something along the same lines, which seems to validate the power of this album to draw attention to itself. For Dub Gabriel, a low-end theorist on a holy war to transform the world with bass, this record is a distinguished sophomore effort from what promises to be a long and stellar career.

indianelectronica.com/content/index.php