Dub Colossus - F-Cat Productions

press review
productions
„An intriguing
inspired set.“
(The Guardian)
„Highly
recommended“
(All About Jazz)
Dub Colossus
Great Britain
F-Cat Productions GmbH
Pohlstr. 39
D-10785 Berlin
fon: 030-26 103 29-20
fax: 030-26 103 29-99
web: www.f-cat.de
Dub Colossus
Addis Through The Looking Glass
Cat number: CDRW183
884108000137 (physical + standard digital)
...epic and confident new set....fusion of Ethiopian jazz
and traditional styles, dub reggae and wide screen, and atmospheric instrumentals...sturdy
vocals from Mimi Zenebe...jazz-edged piano work of the brilliant young Samuel Yirga. An
intriguing inspired set. (UK) ★ ★ ★ ★
'Ethiopia coming through', goes the shout on Dub Colossus's reworking of "Uptown Top
Ranking", and that might be the theme for the whole album. (UK) ★ ★ ★
An even more cohesive and enjoyable mix of dub reggae, jazzy would-be movie music and
Éthiopiques-style funk and balladry. "Ethopia coming through!" indeed. (UK)
...similarly ripe-for-the-pickin'...fusion of Ethiopian groove, dub, jazz and space twang.
Remakes of late 70s classics from Joy Division and Althea and Donna give a good
indication of the breadth and on offer. (UK) ★ ★ ★ ★
The dub work all through the album is excellent, sympathetic and subtle. ...fabulous and I
just wanted to turn the volume up and up... The title (and opening) track is a wonderful
exploration of a jazz groove...a real sense of wonder and awe. This is a properly grown up
album from Dub Colossus and in some respects much more advanced than previous
offerings... (UK) ★ ★ ★ ★
...woozy narcotic ambiance within. ...while their satisfying first set felt tentative, this appears
much more their baby, with the talented musicians of Addis Ababa taking charge. The
Catchiest hooks are on their version of Uptown Top Ranking. This is no novelty collection
but a serious fusion of jazz and dub. (UK) ★ ★ ★
...immaculately performed fusion...The collective remain cross-cultural...Their crossover
comes off best on the spooky call-and-response of Yigermel...immaculately performed
fusion... (UK)
Simmering, jazzy horn arrangements, uncompromising vocals and the insistent pulse of the
rhythm section combine to mesmerising effect. (UK) ★ ★ ★ ★
A Town Called Addis...was their striking debut in 2008 but this is better, probably thanks to
their live concerts. There's a strong reggae influence, but it's songs like the punchy
Guragigna that stand out, with great vocals by "the Ethiopian Edith Piaf", Sintayehu Zenebe,
underpinned by a piano ostinato and a muscular horn section with great sax solos. This
storming sound hits WOMAD in July. (UK) ★ ★ ★ ★
Highly recommended (FR)
There are moments in Addis Through the Looking Glass that feels like revelation...perfect
Ethiopian tradipop...(SWE)
It deserves your serious attention and enjoyment (NZ)
...Addis Through The Looking Glass is a more sophisticated, diverse and challenging
album, with a stronger element of surprise. (AUS)
Classics like Uptown Top Ranking are remixed by nick Page (NL) ★ ★ ★
Much more varied than its predecessor. A rock solid sequel (BE)
It is all well-crafted and passionately felt, and Addis Through The Looking Glass is highly
recommended. (US)
www.realworldrecords.com/dubcolossus
www.dubcolossus.org
Dub Colossus, Bloomsbury Ballroom
Written by Howard Male - Thursday, 11 November 2010 10:44
I’d not been to the Bloomsbury Ballroom before, but over the past five years or so the likes of
Amy Winehouse and Martha Reeves have played this plush Art Deco space. Somewhat
disconcertingly, apart from the stage, the rest of the hall was in virtual darkness which suited Dub
Colossus perfectly: this intriguing collective of British and Ethiopian musicians are purveyors of
intense, atmospheric dance music who actually benefited from this dramatic lack of lighting which
made the stage appear to glow like a coal furnace.
Since releasing their
groundbreaking debut album, A
Town Called Addis, in 2008, the
collective have been relatively
quiet. In fact last night’s gig was
their only live UK date this year.
But I imagine half the problem is
one of logistics: when you’re a
band of in-demand musicians
based in two different parts of the
globe it can’t be easy to operate.
So it’s good news that not only are Dub Colossus still a fully functioning outfit, they also have a
new album out in March of next year which we got an intriguing taste of towards the end of last
night's set.
But first there were personal favourites such as the sublime “Azmari Dub” which illustrated
perfectly how well the five-note pentatonic melodies of Ethiopian music sit with the spacious offbeat rhythms of bass-heavy Jamaican dub. New member, pianist Samuel Yirga, added an
agreeable tension and brightness to the band’s sound with his jagged solos, bringing to mind
Mike Garson’s work on Bowie’s Aladdin Sane. Another treat was the Horns of Negus (who have
previously worked with Dr John and Dizzee Rascal). They shone because of their ability to hold
back, as much as their considerable fire-power.
Both female vocalist Sintayehu 'Mimi' Zenebe and Tsedenia Gebremarkos are huge successes in
their own right in Ethiopia and their soaring, somersaulting voices effortlessly filled the hall’s
ocean-liner ambience. And then of course there’s the unassuming backbone of the band, founder
member and guitarist Nick Page, who most of the time just chopped away at those reggae offbeats but occasionally surprised with a fluid but succinct solo.
'It’s simply circling brass motif created an ascending tension from which there was no escape
until the track selfself-imploded at the end'
At one point we were invited to do the traditional Ethiopian shoulder dance (“You can help us with
this”), which consisted of wiggling one shoulder and then the other. We got no further instructions
(we reserved Brits need all the help and encouragement we can get), so most didn’t bother to try.
But it would be unfair to criticise a band for not working hard enough to get an audience to do
something they didn’t want to do in the first place. And the fact of the matter was that everyone
was perfectly happy to do their own free-style skanking.
The concert peeked with “Mercato Music” from their debut album (one of my favourite releases in
any genre over the past few years). It’s simply circling brass motif created an ascending tension
from which there was no escape until the track self-imploded at the end. There then followed a
couple of new songs (presumably from the new album due in March of next year) which boldly
signalled a whole new direction for the band. “Selemi”, for example, had an endearing “We Are
Family” Sister Sledge vibe about it, although viewed through the same Éthiopiques prism as all
their music. Page knocked out an appropriately wah-wahed guitar solo, vocalists Tsedenia and
Sintayehu delivered a lyric which seemed to be little more than a continuous chorus, and the
consummate brass section put the icing on the cake. This was 1970s disco with added Addis
Ababa swing, and was all the better for it.
But there was still one more surprise to come from this glorious 12-piece; a sublime cover of
Althea & Donna’s 1977 hit “Uptown Top Ranking” which -while remaining fairly true to the original
- also felt sufficiently different to justify its existence. So after more than a year away, Dub
Colossus proved that even if they were a little shaky live in their early performances they are now
a formidable live act that can surprise, delight and get the shoulders shaking in equal measure.
Dub Colossus at Bloomsbury Ballroom
November 10, 2010
A review by Mary Couzens
for EXTRA! EXTRA!
I’d often wandered past the Art Deco building
housing this ballroom and wondered what it like
was inside. Walking through a small
entranceway, we were directed down a flight of
stairs to what seemed, at first glance, a narrow
hallway, but was really, a smart, slender room
lined with leather upholstered wooden booths,
before coming to the large, ornate lobby of the
building. T shirts and CDs were for sale on a
table to our left as we made our way into the
rectangular ballroom , with its two huge mirror balls hung high on either side of the stage, stained glass star
set in the ceiling and smooth wooden dance floor. We couldn’t help but wonder if this same ballroom had
once housed WWII era dances.
This double bill in vintage Bloomsbury Ballroom featured two dynamic Ethiopian groups, the first - Krar
Collective, with their talented leader, Temesegen Tareken, once pupil of renowned vibraphone player Mulatu
Astatke of the Heliocentris, on Krar (five or six stringed Ethiopian lyre), vibrant singer/dancer Genet Asefa,
and an unnamed but none the less effective drummer. The Collective, who have been known to collaborate
with many and varied musicians and sometimes feature as many as four dancers, draw their inspired sound
from the traditional music of various regions of Ethiopia, and, render, as they put it, ‘different tribal traditions
with a contemporary edge.’ Crowd well warmed up, DJ Jamie Renton spun his (likely) virtual World Music
platters enabling drinkers to hit the watering hole, before the increasingly mighty (in terms of numbers,
performance and potential) Dub Colossus took to the stage.
The nucleus of Dub Colossus, guitarist/percussionist/ bass/ and master of you name it, Nick “Dubulah”
Page, the “Edith Piaf” of Ethiopian song and, champion of Azmari music, Sintayehu 'Mimi' Zenebe, fellow
singer Tsedenia Gebremarkos, (winner of a Kora award as the best female singer in East Africa in 2004),
master saxophonist/classical composer, Feleke Hailu, piano prodigy Samuel Yirga and singer/messenquo
player (one string fiddle) Teremage Woretaw, who carries on the ancient Azmari tradition in his own
inimitable way. This vibrant core group was complemented here by a six piece horn section, two drummers –
hand and kit and bass player.
On this, the group’s only UK engagement, their set consisted of several popular selections from their album,
In A Town Called Addis, (2008), among them, infectious dub tracks ‘Azmari’, ‘Titiza,’ and ‘Entoto Dub’ as
well as other Addis favourites ‘Mercato Music’ and ‘Ambassel’. From the group’s remix EP Return to Addis,
stunner‘Sima Edy’, intermingled with numbers from their latest EP, Rockers Meets Addis Uptown, a copy of
which was given gratis to the first fifty people to enter the doors of Bloomsbury Ballroom that night. As the
set simmered to an energizing climax, potential new hits ‘Selemi’, ‘Guragigna’, ‘Medina’ and the group’s
own, Ethiopian flavoured take on Anthia and Donna’s 1978 Dub classic ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ kept the
largely young crowd swaying, and gingerly dancing, (this being London). All I could think of at that point was
how mad they’d go for Dub Colossus back in NYC.
Fans will be well acquainted with the many
shimmering facets of singers Mimi and Tsedenia,
each of whom have distinctly different voices, both full
of dimension, power and at times, playfulness, and
the warming input of Hailu’s sultry sax, Dubulah’s
electrifying guitar and Woretaw’s plaintive singing and
finely attuned Messenquo playing. Yarga’s expressive
ethio-jazz piano wove in and out, and over and under
this buoyant cacophony of sounds with the seeming
ease indicative of inborn talent. The addition of six
piece horn section, Horns of Negus,
featuring Ben Somers on tenor and baritone
sax, Robert Dowell on trombone
and Jonathan Radford on trumpet, as well as other musical surprises from drummer Nick Van Gelder (ex
Jamiroquai, Brand New Heavies), bass player Dr Das (ex Asian Dub Foundation), vocalist P J Higgins
(Natacha Atlas, Almamegretta, Kenneth Bager) and conga player Ramjac, combined made the resulting
sound of the group a fuller, more full-bodied experience, reminiscent of, as they say, ‘the sultry clubs and
pounding dancehalls of Addis Ababa.’ Mimi and Tsedenia’s shoulder movements were palely echoed by
female fans in the audience, though other dance manoeuvres were purely Ethiopian and, out of our can.
Both singers are so personable and enthusiastic onstage, (not to mention talented) that it seems
inappropriate to refer to them by their surnames here.
Dub Colossus has never been known to disappoint in any of their many and spirited live performances at
WOMAD or anywhere else, and despite its’ occasional sound glitches, this exclusive, one off London gig in
suitably classic surroundings was no exception. In March 2011 the group’s new album, Addis Through The
Looking Glass will be released, so before too long there will, no doubt, be another opportunity to see Dub
Colossus live. We’ll look forward to it.
BBC Review - An inspired fusion of styles on
Dubulah and company’s sophomore effort.
David Katz 2011-04-13
Former Transglobal Underground and Temple of Sound main-man
Nick Page, aka Count Dubulah, formed Dub Colossus as an outlet
for hybrid interaction with Ethiopian musicians he encountered in
Addis Ababa in 2006. The resultant debut album, A Town Called
Addis, was widely praised for its border-stretching capacities and
sonic adventurousness, giving traditional Ethiopian styles a
modern re-working with a thoroughly dubwise sensibility.
Sophomore set Addis Through the Looking Glass continues the
journey with an even more complex stew, featuring guest input from Dr Das of Asian Dub
Foundation, Jamiroquai’s drummer Nick Van Gelder, and founding Steel Pulse member Mykaell
Riley. But its overall irresistibility truly comes courtesy of the Ethiopian players, who were
apparently more in the driving seat this time around.
The base of the music holds trademark elements of that which so enchanted audiences on the
Ethiopiques series: vocalists Sintayehu Zenebe, Teremage Woretaw and Tsedenia Gebremarkos
call to mind the legendary figures of Ethiopian music’s golden age, while sax man Feleke
Woldemariam and the Bole Better Brass blow an updated Imperial Bodyguard style; expressive
keyboardist Samuel Yirga also makes important melodic contributions throughout. It all serves to
help ground the music in its Ethiopian origins, before Dubulah and crew drag in various blues,
jazz, folk and rock elements, ultimately blasting the whole shebang into the dub stratosphere.
On tracks like Tringo Dub and the playfully named Dub Will Tear Us Apart, everything hangs
together exceptionally well, appearing as the kind of music that might have resulted if Kingston’s
finest dub mixers made a pilgrimage to Addis in the roots era. The bluesy re-make of The
Abyssinians’ immortal Satta Massagana furthers this theme, and even if the Ethio-pop re-working
of Uptown Top Ranking is a weaker link in the chain, instrumentals Feqer Aydelem Wey and
Yezema Meseret are quietly dazzling. By the time we reach the closing goulash of Gubeliye, the
disc has taken in hard bop, psychedelic rock, ragamuffin dancehall and streetwise RnB, hidden
textures easily missed on first listen ready to be discovered. Dubulah says the aim is to constantly
surprise, and he really pulls off the feat on Addis Through the Looking Glass, for predicting the
course quickly becomes an impossibility.
Dub Colossus: Addis Through The Looking
Glass
By David Honigmann
Published: April 16 2011 00:31 | Last updated: April 16 2011 00:31
Dub Colossus
Addis Through The Looking Glass
(Real World)
“Ethiopia coming through”, goes the shout on Dub Colossus’s reworking of “Uptown
Top Ranking”, and that might be the theme for the whole album.
The Ethiopian members of the band take the spotlight, notably the pianist Samuel
Yirga, channelling Monk and Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou in equal measure. But the
deep reggae bass and Mykaell Riley’s singing both underpin the krar and masenqo.
Album review
Dub Colossus - Addis Through The Looking
Glass
added: 26 Apr 2011 // release date: 26 Apr 2011 // label: Realworld
reviewer: Andy Snipper
This has taken me an age to sort out – I did not know
how I felt about DC’s latest album, I only knew that it
was a different album every time I listened to it and in
what context. In the car, all windows down and the sun
beating down, this was fabulous and I just wanted to
turn the volume up and up but on my PC in the late
night it just didn’t have the depth except when the dawn
broke it suddenly made sense once again. Real mood
music I guess.
The title (and opening) track is a wonderful exploration of a jazz groove with horns that veer in
and out of the front line alongside the most insistent bassline, a real sense of wonder and awe.
‘Dub Will Tear Us Apart’ is also in a groove but I find the vocals on the track, courtesy of ‘Mimi’
Zenebe, just don’t quite work but the horns – oh wow!
The dub work all through the album is excellent, sympathetic and subtle – Dubulah at his best I
think – and musically this is generally wonderful with some great use of traditional instruments as
well as western – ‘Tringo Dub’ I adore and ‘Yezema Meseret’ – and fine jazz improvisations all
through. Special mention should be made of their version of ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ which is a
complete reimagining of the number.
This is a properly grown up album from Dub Colossus and in some respects much more
advanced than previous offerings but it does really need the listener to be in the right place –
when you are you will love this but be warned that there are days when this will simply grate.
Dub Colossus: Addis Through The Looking
Glass
By CHRIS MAY, Published: April 16, 2011
Dub Colossus
Addis Through The Looking Glass
Real World
2011
Modern Ethiopian recordings were largely unknown
abroad until 1997, when France's Buda Musique label
launched its Ethiopiques CD series. The reason had
nothing to do with the music, which was wondrous and
varied and splendidly distinctive, and everything to do
with the Dergue, the military junta which ruled Ethiopia
from the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974
until its own downfall in 1987. The Dergue suppressed
the live music scene and the independent record labels
which had emerged towards the end of Selassie's rule, in defiance of his placemen's legally
protected monopoly over the record business. The infant music business in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia's capital, was practically strangled at birth, and took a decade and more to recover.
Ethiopiques, which by late 2010 had notched up 27 albums of reissued and newly recorded
music, and is still growing, opened the doors and let out the light—as had, briefly but
spectacularly, Belgium's Crammed Discs label, with its 1986 rerelease of singer Mahmoud
Ahmed's landmark 1975 album, Ere Mela Mela, now available as Ethiopiques 7.
But it was not until 2005, and the release of Jim Jarmusch's movie Broken Flowers—which
featured Ethiopiques 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale 1969-1974 prominently on its
soundtrack—that Ethiopian music, particularly the Ethio-jazz of bandleader and composer
Mulatu Astatke, took a grip on the imaginations of European and North American musicians.
Since then, a number of bands have formed, championing Ethiopian styles and weaving
them into their native jazz, dub and funk musics.
Step forward Dubulah, aka Nick Page, a London producer and musician, who travelled to
Addis in 2006 to immerse himself in the scene. With singers Sintayehu "Mimi" Zenebe and
Tsedenia Gebremarkos Woldesilassie, singer and messenqo (one-stringed violin) player
Termage Woretaw, tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Feleka Hailu Woldemariam and
keyboard player Samuel Yirga, along with a crew of London-based jazz and reggae
musicians, Dubulah formed Dub Colossus. The group debuted in 2008 with A Town Called
Addis (Real World), on which the echoes of 1970s roots reggae rang loud.
With the release of Addis Through The Looking Glass, Dub Colossus has almost outgrown
the "dub" appellation and its associated reggae connections. Dub aesthetics continue to
color most tracks—and there's a reverential cover of The Abyssinians' 1976 roots classic,
"Satta Massagana," and a more mutated reading of Althea & Donna's 1977 pop hit, "Uptown
Top Ranking"—but the presence of Ethio-jazz and traditional Ethiopian vocal music is now
equally keenly felt. On this album, the group sounds more like a Ethio-jam band, albeit with a
bigger lineup than your typical jam band, with featured vocalists (singing in Amharic and
English) on most tracks and horn arrangements which winningly combine Ethio-jazz and
Jamaican tropes.
There are two horn sections; the London-based Horns Of Negus, and the Addis-based Bole
Better Brass. Both include compelling soloists, and in reed player Wondwassen W-Sellasie
and trumpeter Solomon Betrmariam, Bole Better Brass, who are featured on two tracks, have
a pair of remarkable, world class talents. Other instrumental luminaries include keyboardist
Yirga, who plays in an adventurous, if Astatke-influenced style, reed player Woldemariam
(his tenor solo on "Satta Massagana" is a jewel of gritty lyricism), Horns Of Negus trumpeter
Jonathan Radford, and Dubulah himself, playing guitar, bass, keyboards and percussion
(possibly including the uncredited vibraphone which adds its spacey magic to a handful of
tracks).
It is all well-crafted and passionately felt, and Addis Through The Looking Glass is highly
recommended. Who would have thought, when Ethiopiques launched in 1997, that Ethiopian
music would come up to bump like this, going on 15 years later? Or come to that, also in
1997, when Nigeria's Fela Kuti died, that Fela! would be the Broadway musical smash of
2010? Strange tales both of them, but, happily, both true.
Dub Colossus
'Addis Through The Looking Glass'
CD review
lazzthetik
May/June 2011
Insofern erweistsich der Produzent Dubula h mitseinem ProjeldDub
Colossus in mehr als einer Hinsicht als
Dub Colossus
gelehrlger Laswell-Adept. Auch hier
Addis Through the Loomng
klingt der erste Track nach Fehltritt, aber
Produzentr Dubulah
das hat [4ethode (wirschauen nur
chss
14T€cks
RealWo
d/
EtVl
durchs ,looking glassu, bevor die Reise
wirklich losgeht) und w.rd Track für Track
relativieft . Reggae-Bässe treffen auf
orientale Gesangsgirlanden, äthiopische
Skalen auf Offbeat-Akkorde, am Ende
steht eine sechsminütige Hybrid-Version
des Klassikers
"Uptown Top Ranking".
Soundvorbild ist der wuchtig federnde
Laswell-Sound, aber Dubulah har au'
seinen Sessions in Addis Ababa genug
genuines l\4aterial gesammelt, um daraus sein ganz eigenes jamaikanisch-
äthiopisches Road-lvlov;e zu drehen, ein
wahres Festfür die Sinne.
E c Mandel
}IUIIC
OFFIGE
Dub Colossus
'Addis Through The Looking Glass'
CD review
Jaz,zthing
June - August 2011
Nrck Page, Fans von Trans Global Underground als
Dubulah bekannt, hat das zweite Werk unter dem
anderen Decl<ramen Dub Colossus fertig. ..Adais
Through The Lool<ing class" (Real World/lndigo),
großteils in Addis Abeba produziert, beginnt mit ei
ner jazzigen Nummer, die ebensogut in einer bri
tischen Lounge aufgenommen hätte sein können.
Doch dann wird Addis überdeutlich: Typisch äthiopische Gitaren l<reisen durch den Bachbeat, die
Sängerinnen Sintayehu ,,Mimi" Zenebe und Tse
denia Ccbrerrarl<0,..etzterp mit dem Prei. geade L.
die beste weibli' he Stimmc Ostalrikd5 zu sein. ge
bco den I on an. Zur athiopischcn Riege der r ielen
Beteiligten gehören außerdem derSax-Player Feleke
Hailu, Pianist Samuel Yirga und der Fiedelspieler
Teremage Woretaw, der mit brüchiger Stimme deD
Blues in die Klanglandschaft einbringt, wo larmo
yanter Ethio Jazz seine Spur zieht, l<narzende Fol
klore mit Funl< flirtet und stampfender Reggae sich
mit Dub Elementen l<reuzt urd dabei die Sounds
aus Addis einatmet. Sogar das alte ,,Satta Massaga
na" und ,,Uptown Top Ranking" finden in djesem
Crossover ihren Platz.
xuStc oFFtcE
Dub Colossus
'Addis Through The Looking Glass'
CD review
Globalsounds.info
May 2011
Dub Colossus
- Addis Through The Looking Glass
Nick Page alias Count Dubullah hat seine Liebe zu den äthiopischen Tönen und Grooves ausgebaut.
Seine zweite Produktion mit Dub Colossus zeügt eine jazzigere Seite des Projekts, und die
Soundkulturen aus London und Addis sind viel enger zusammen gewachsen.
Dub tqill tear us apart Satta Massagana, Kuratu
Was vor rund 2 Jahren als Projekt begann hat sich zu einer interkontinentalen Band entwickelt.
Dubulah, seine äthiopischen Sängerinnen und Musiker und die englischen Kollegen brachten die Songs
der ersten Produktj-o_lt auch live auf die Bühne. Das zeigt erste Früchte: Die neuen Songs sind mehr
von den Athiopiern beeinflusst, es tönt weniger nach Jam und Zufall. <<Sie brachten mehr Ideen für die
Weiterentwicklung der Band, und überliessen es dann mir, diese Ideen in den richtigen Sound zu
rücken>>, wird Dubulah im Booklet zitiert.
Insgesamt sind die Melodien klarer, kräftiger und überzeugender. Der Gesamtsound ist um einiges
jazziger, knüpft mehr an den Sound des goldnen Musikzeitalters in Addis Ende der 60er, anfangs der
70er Jahre an. Dazu kommt eine ausgewogene Portion an Dub-Groove, u.a. im Reggae-Klassiker SaFg
14assaqana der Abyssinians. Erstaunlicherweise entstand unter dem grössere Einfluss der äthiopischen
Sängerinnen und Musiker nicht ein afrikanischeres, sondern ein europäischeres Album. Nein, noch
besser: ein globalisiert jazziges Album mit äthiopischem crundton.
Gestaftet als Projekt hat Dub Colossus an Profil zugelegt und übezeugt mit Melodien und Grooves die
nur darauf warten, auch live gespielt zu werden.
Rating:
Dub Colossus
'Addis Through The Looking Glass'
CD review
Kölner Illustrierte
May 2OLL
In die schwülen Clubs und angesagten Dancehalls von Addis
Abeba entführt Nick Page und seine Band DUB COLOSSUS
den geneigten Musikfreund mit,,Addis Through the Looking
Glass" (Real World /Indigo, VA 29.4.). Das vielschichtige und
jederzeit überraschende Album mixt Jazz, Dub-Reggae und
Funk zusammen mit verschiedensten äthiopischen Styles und
stimmlichen Entdeckungen zu einem beeindruckenden
Klangerlebnis.
Dub Colossus
'Addis Through The Looking Glass'
CD review
STEREO
June zOLl:
(9
Dub Colossus
ADDIS THROUGH THE...
Real World/lndigo (D
(68)
Auch aufihrem zweitenAlbum überraschen Nick Page alias Dub Colossus und 5eine multinationale Musikcrew mit einer abwechslungsreichen
l\4elange aus Reggae, Dub, AfroRoots und Jazz. Essenzieller Bestandteil ist die traditionelle AzmariMusikAthiopiens. Komponist und
ci,
tarrist Page war 1990 Gründungsmitglied bei Tran5-Global Underground
und formiede später auch Temple of
sound. Dub Colossus entstand 2006
in Addis Abeba. tlnter den zahlreichen Gastrnu5ikern tummeln sich der
renommierte Saxophonist Feleke
Hailu und Tsedenia Gebfemarkos,
Gewinnerin des Kora-Awards 2oo4
als beste Sängerin 0stafrikas.
MUsrK***t
r(rANG
***.'
titu
slc oFFtct
Dub Colossus
'Addis Through The Looking Glass'
CD review
Saarbrücker Zeitung
May, 19th 2011
Weit moderner klingt das, was Dub Colossus auf ihren neuen Tonträger,,Addis
Through The Looking Glass" (Real World/Indigo) gebannt haben. Man muss kein
Prophet sein, um zu wissen, dass dieser Bastard aus coolem Jazz-Funk-Dub-Reggae
und schwüler äthiopischer Folklore die multikulturellen Clubs der Großstädte mit
Macht infizieren wird. Mastermind dieses Projekts, Nick Page alias Dubalah, hat mit
hochkarätigen Musikern (unter anderem Jamiroquai und Natacha Atlas) ein
regelrechtes Star-Aufgebot rekrutiert. Aber von wegen ,,Viele Köche..."
all das mundet wirklich orächiiql
-
llUSIC
OFFICE