Dennis Bovell's 80s reggae classics get a "repulse"

Dennis Bovell meets Dubblestandart – Repulse "Reggae Classics" is out October 8th via Hamburg's Echo Beach label. 

Here's the scoop...

Dennis Bovell, from Barbados, based in London, England, is a legend - a bass player legend (band leader of the legendary Linton Kwesi Johnson Band) - a producer legend (The Slits, Fela Kuti, Bananarama, Madness, Joss Stone, a.o.). He produced the soundtrack for the critically highly acclaimed movie Babylon and the hit song "Silly Games" by Janet Kay. In recent years his works regained interest, also due to the recent rerelease of the '80s movie Babylon and his participation in Steve McQueen's drama series Small Axe about the real-life experiences of London's West Indian community, set between 1969-82.

In 2019, Vienna's Dubblestandart produced a limited selection of reworks of reggae classics of Dennis Bovell's 1980's band Matumbi, Steel Pulse, Burning Spear, Twinkle Brothers, Culture a.o., focusing on works that have been pivotal for the inspiration of Dubblestandart's bandleader Paul Zasky. Nicolai Beverungen, dub reggae label headman of Echo Beach outta Hamburg, invited Dennis Bovell to "repulse" the album at Robbie Ost's GoEAST Studio. 

Dennis felt inspired, loved the idea, re-voiced the songs, added a couple of guitar lines and also re-dubbed the album. Repulse "Reggae Classics" features Dennis Bovell on vocals and as a dub producer in co-operation with Robbie Ost from Dubblestandart, mixing on a legendary E-6000 solid state mixing board (taken over from Tears For Fears' studio in London), using selected vintage outboard analog equipment, developing a distinctive dub reggae sound for this release. 

What do songs like "I'm No Robot", "Babylon The Bandit", or Matumbi's "Hypocrite" have in common? All of them were written during the 1980s of the last century, but never lost their contemporary accuracy, still perfectly criticizing and analyzing the "pulse" todays political leaderships and societies controversial points of view, have, while entering the digital age.

Pre-order a limited-run vinyl copy of Dennis Bovell meets Dubblestandart from Rough Trade right  here. Listen to "Babylon The Bandit" followed by Dennis Bovell's epic dub mix of the Pop Group's classic "She Is Beyond Good 'n' Evil" from The Pop Group's forthcoming Y in Dub album (available here) and a 2017 interview with Dennis Bovell below. 

Mute and Nick Smash host a Toronto release party for "Y in Dub" at The Piston on October 31. More info here.