Lawless Street Blog » DVD

Return of the Rub-A-Dub Style!

Lawless — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:02:45 +0000

We’ve mentioned the wonderful pleasure we have of living in Los Angeles, home to such a great musical landscape and tons of Jamaican influneced bands and sound system dances such as The Dub Club and Punky Reggae Party. Well there’s a new documentary about what makes the dancehall and sound system culture what it is today.

Produced by Tom Chasteen and featuring performances of various original foundation DJs taking the mic live and direct backed by The Echodelic Sound System from the various shows that have been put on in recent years, the exciting new documentary film, “Return of the Rub-a-Dub Style” directed by Steve Hanft, gets another screening.

The 60 minute film screens next Wednesday July 15th 2009 at 9pm as part of the weekly Dub Club experience at the Echo and comes out on dvd in August. Get there before 9:30 and it’s FREE! Trinity & Tippa Lee will perform later in the night.

Here’s the trailer for your viewing pleasure.

Dub Echoes Soon Come

Lawless — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:01:44 +0000

FROM www.dubechoes.com

At first, one might think that reggae and dance music don’t have much to do with each other. But that’s a false perception.

The documentary “Dub Echoes” shows how this Jamaican invention called dub ended up influencing much of the music we hear today, from electronic music to hip-hop, transforming the studio in a musical instrument and giving way to all of sonic experiments.

“Dub Echoes” was produced by a Brazilian crew, in Kingston (Jamaica), London (UK), NY, Washington, LA (US), Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (Brazil).

Key names, from both reggae and the electronic music world, talk about the birth of this genre, how it helped to change the way we perceive music and how it’s presence can still be felt today.
Just follow the bass lines!

Here are just some of the people included in the documentary:
BASEMENT JAXX
BEAT JUNKIES
BILL LASWELL
BULLWACKIE
BUNNY LEE
CONGO NATTY
DAVID KATZ
DENNIS BOVELL
DJ SPOOKY
DON LETTS
DUB PISTOLS
KING JAMMY
LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY
MAD PROFESSOR
MARIO CALDATO JR.
SLY & ROBBIE
STEVE BARROW
THIEVERY CORPORATION
U-ROY
VICTOR “TICKLAH” AXELROD

www.myspace.com/dubechoes

“Babylon” DVD: Harder They Come UK OHHHHH!

Lawless — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 07:29:33 +0000

One of the most highly regarded cult British films of the 1980s, Babylon comes to DVD for the first time ever in the UK this October courtesy of Icon Home Entertainment, boasting fully restored and remastered image and audio (personally overseen by Chris Menges) plus Audio Commentaries, Interviews and feature on the restoration.

Directed by Franco Rosso (Dread Beat an’ Blood), co-written (with Rosso) by Martin Stellman (Quadrophenia; Defence Of The Realm; For Queen And Country), photographed by two-time Oscar winner Chris Menges (The Mission; The Killing Fields) and starring celebrated reggae star and Aswad frontman Brinsley Forde (Here Come The Double Deckers), Karl Howman (Brush Strokes; Mulberry) and Trevor Laird (Doctor Who; Quadrophenia), Babylon is a raw and incendiary film employing an effective mix of music and social commentary to recount the everyday experiences of a small group of working class black youths living in South London in the early 1980s.

Mechanic and part-time sound system ‘toaster’ Blue (Brinsley Forde) and his Ital Lion crew are looking forward to their forthcoming reggae sound clash competition with rival outfit Jah Shaka. But as the event approaches, Blue’s personal life begins to unravel. First he’s fired from his job by his racist boss (played by Mel Smith) and then he begins to suspect his girlfriend is cheating on him. A further series of unpleasant racist incidents – including Blue being chased, brutally beaten and arrested by a group of plain-clothes policemen – culminates in Ital Lion’s lock-up garage being broken into and their sound equipment being destroyed. Increasingly angered and alienated by what he perceives to be society’s rejection of his race and his culture, Blue is compelled to respond by fighting fire with fire.

Driven by a musical score composed and arranged by legendary reggae guitarist, former member of Matumbi and record producer (The Thompson Twins, Madness) Dennis Bovell, with additional songs by Yabby U, I-Roy and Aswad, Babylon is a brilliant, breathlessly energetic, neo-realist snapshot of what it was like to be young, poor and black in early 1980s Britain, Babylon remains as socially relevant today as it was almost 30 years ago.
(FROM latemag.com)

Here’s the trailer.