Sometimes, it is good to take a little bit of rest. The Dubroom started back in 1997 and developed but during the first part of 2014 and some years before that, yours truly had absolutely no energy to continue in the same way. The sound that was developed around 2006, was worn out to say the least. Five albums and well over thirty EP's/Singles, altogether about 130 different mixes, the last one released in this year, 2014. In another update you can already read a little bit about it, but this edition of Dubroom In-Site gives a bigger picture.

Most self-respecting artists and producers will have a sense of unsatisfaction concerning material they have (seen) released in the past. It's called healthy criticism or continual insight, whatever. Usually, such a sense leads to some kind of development but it can take time, sometimes years before anything is actually achieved. 

Even though it can take years, an improvement can be done in a short time. Just compare "Dub the Wicked" (MP3) with "Imperial Dubwise" (MP3), the first one released in April and the second in May of this year 2014. The difference is hopefully noticeable, and is not just the result of some financial investments in licenses and hardware. Not just the result of a sense of responsibility and dignity when it comes to using the obtained material. It has to do with inspiration as well, something that is very hard to define. Call it the X-Factor. Personally, I Messian Dread prefer to say the JAH Factor but that will be no surprise for anyone even remotely familiar with I (works).

Now, these past few months it's not just the Dubroom Website where a lot of things are going on. The very same, well, to be quite frankly even more can be said about the Dubroom Studio. Thus far, only a couple of tracks have been released but much more is produced, just not released. A sneak preview is given in the latest chapter of Radio Dubroom, though the mix in that podcast is not the most recent one either. 

You could say, that the new Dubroom sound is currently being developed in the Dubroom studio, a sound which contains -for the first time- real horns and much deeper mixing. Some sounds, like horns and backing vocals are legally downloadable for free and visitors of Studio Dubroom already have the possibility to discover -together with yours truly- how crucial some of these free and legal sounds are. Recent uploads to the studio include High Quality Acoustic Drums (Yamaha, Zildjan), a Reggae Guitar sample pack by a professional guitar player who graciously gave us the permission to host the sounds, and a vocal pack by Ras Kitchen. 

Also crucial are the vocal parts in the new Dubroom releases. No, the vocalists did not come to the Dubroom Studio to voice and no, these are not illegal recordings or releases. The fact that the Dubroom's Net Label releases Dubroom productions for free does not mean that all the material came to this studio for free. We did obtain the recordings legally and purchased legal licenses to use them in Dubroom productions. 

There's also brand new hardware here in the Dubroom. It should be good for years to come, and in fact is ready for future technological improvements like 64-bit technology and all that. Next to huge improvement in sound technology where 24-bit is the standard, this new hardware is also able to function for the creation of video's. But that's no priority at the moment.

Even though the Dubroom released a couple of singles now, this is not the way everything is going to be released. It is very, very tempting to put everything online the minute it is mastered but this current material deserves a better treatment if you will, if only because of the huge respect I have for the vocalists whose works I'm incorporating in the new Dubroom music. Some riddims need tweaking, others have still to be created and we're not talking about one or two tunes here. 

In fact, we are not even talking about an album. We're talking several albums: Showcase and Dub albums, to be exact. There will be quite a number of full-length lyrical tracks, all original Dubroom musical productions. 

The Net Label is also working on releasing an album by a good brethren based in the UK, who has visited the Netherlands on several occasions for live performances together with yours truly. Heart-felt, righteous UK Roots that is bound to touch the heart and soul of listeners. 

Watch the Dubroom the coming months, or even better: subscribe to our mailing list(s) and/or message board to stay up-to-date and -very much appreciloved- give your feedback to everything that a gwaan through blog or forum or e-mail.

One Love,
Messian Dread

LINKS

MORE