Dub Trio - New Heavy

Genre electronica Publisher Roir Reachout International Records, Inc. External Links Official Dub Trio Website Official Roir Reachout International Records, Inc. Website

Dub Trio certainly are not for everyone, but with the musical skills they possess, and the risks they are taking, their efforts seem to be already paying off. This trio consists of three young men from New York City. These guys perform and write all the original material that is on their second release, New Heavy. Stu Brooks (bass/keys and dubs), Joe Tomino (drums, percussion, keys, melodica and dubs) and D.P. Holmes (guitar, keys and dubs) are getting quite a bit of attention lately with their music and live performances.

The music that they play is not the Jamaican dub of the late 60's or 70's, but is the Dub Trio's blend, or hybrid if you will, of musical styles and approaches that has audiences on the East Coast taking notice. One musical stage the Dub Trio took recently was the stage of the Conan O'Brien show last month.

The general public is still not all familiar with dub music. Dub's roots took hold in Jamaica in the late 1960's. Osbourne Ruddock (a.k.a King Tubby) pioneered the style of dub. Ruddock radically altered the way the recording process was done by using the studio mixing board as an instrument. Audio effects and studio "trickery" are an integral part of dub's past and present as evident on the record New Heavy.

New Heavy is a good title for this trio's release, who may not only have been inspired by Jamaican dub, but by rock, thrash metal, English ska, jazz and reggae. The first track, "Illegal Dub," is a sonic attack of drums, guitars and bass and after a minute or so, goes into sound effects, mixes Dub Trio style. Joe Tomino plays the drums as if his life depends on it. His life and career do depend on it and not only do I think he is going to survive, but I hope he is going to prosper in a big way from his hard work. Perhaps Joe was inspired by two other living "drum machines," Neil Peart and Stuart Copeland. The Police fused elements of pop, rock, reggae and jazz into their records, and Joe and his mates Stu and D.P. are fusing these elements plus psychedelic style sound effects, tripped out rhythms and what sounds like improv. I mention improv because with ever changing styles and musical direction from song to song and sometimes even within a song, I'm guessing an improv style was probably calculated by the Dub Trio.

The listener doesn't know if these style changes are calculated or perhaps that their approach in the studio is just record everything and anything and we'll mix it down later. This musical hybrid unfolds yet again on their 2nd track, with guest Mike Patton on vocals. Mike's voice alternates from a sweet sounding falsetto to a somewhat scary sounding metal or thrash singer in the vein of Trent Reznor in NIN.

With 10 out of 11 tracks being instrumentals, I would have suggested that they put "Not Alone" last or left it off entirely. Perhaps placing it on their next CD along with more vocal based songs would have been a good move.

The precision and mechanical assault on the 3rd track "Angle of Acceptance" sounds like a musical collaboration from Pink Floyd, Pantera, The Police and King Tubby. The song "Jack Bauer" shows a Rush influence. The opening to "One Man Tag Crew" starts out sounding a bit like Green Day then proceeds again into left field, Dub Trio style. The sound of an accordion can be heard on "Sunny I'm Kill" and then proceeds into dub and reggae which is what happens a lot on this record.

While this musical hybrid may get on some people's nerves, others will be thrilled to hear a fairly original sounding band - something that is rare these days. I think early Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett had a similar effect on the public and garnished a love/hate relationship. I don't know if mind altering substances were a factor here as it were for the Floyd, but it sounds like a possibility. It sounds like Stu, D.P. and Joe were let loose on this record and I don't know how this CD actually worked, but somehow, mysteriously, it did. I'm just glad I'm not one of their parents that had to put up with all the basement practice sessions!