Damn, this LP is really going to turn some heads. You know those releases that turn out to be game changers? The plates that swerve the way you start buying records, if only for a temporary time? I can recall a few; Blind Joe Death, Marcellus Pittman’s Erase The Pain 12″, The Heliocentrics, Rhythim is Rhythim and Ras G’s Ghetto Sci Fi are all plates that were soon followed by new directions in the record collection, rewarding if only short-term.
I can’t help thinking that Duppy Gun Productions have produced a pretty special compilation here, one that’s going to leave a similar lasting impression on more than a few people.
Duppy Gun is the label co-founded and run by Sun Araw and M. Geddes Gengras, birthed in Jamaica when the LA musicians travelled to Jamaica to collaborate with The Congos in 2012. A great release came from that trip, and just a few years on we’re now looking at a compilation of other-worldly dancehall travels.
Both Araw and Gengras are known for their experimental music workings, multi-instrumentalist producers never shy of a collaboration and keen to walk new paths.This attitude comes through strongly in their label curation, featuring a range of Jamaican and US artists working on some crazy vibes of beats and riddims. Guest producers such as Peaking Lights, Matthewdavid and Butchy Fuego were among the those who flew over to Jamaica to produce with some of the lesser known vocalists on the cuts. The tracks sound authentic as they do groundbreaking, and even oddly accessible. Multiply: Duppy Gun Productions Vol. 1 not only collects the labels four plates to date but also a handful of additional bits. This is ‘dancehall’ like I’ve never heard it – part Disrupt, part Young Echo and part Lee Gamble with equal measures of Dubkasm and Yellowman mixed in. A mixture of instrumentals – some synthwave based steppers – and the vocal collaborations gives you a pretty wide space of sound, none of it anything but great.
Sixteen tracks across 2 LPs makes about seventy minutes of tracks from eleven different lead artists and a load more unnamed on the track list. Definitely one for the Seekersinternational fam out there, nothing but love for this sound.
Proper effort’s gone in to bringing us this one, the way it should be, and it’s certainly paid off. as a step further, filmmaker Tony Lowe has also been drafted in to the ever-growing Duppy Gun Productions family to help spread the message. Since early October he’s been bombing up short videos, of which you can see above and below, and a playlist of here: http://youtu.be/pJJZHe1BxZ4?list=PLEJ8-RIWw5EIEHKYpqqrXOkCZoLAWlCd0
If you’re still not convinced that this will blow your mind check a few more sound previews below, jacked from the Duppy Gun soundcloud page. Press release underneath that, then you can head over to the Stones Throw store to order a copy, with or without an ill t-shirt.
via Stones Throw
Duppy Gun is an “Outer-Orbit” Dancehall label and production team founded and operated by Cameron Stallones (Sun Araw) and M. Geddes Gengras.
Stallones and Gengras ferry a growing family of Duppy Gun producers to Jamaica and record vocalists wherever they are able to find talent and an electrical outlet. Includes production from Peaking Lights, Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras and Matthewdavid, and more.
The full-length album Multiply, Duppy Gun Prod. Vol. 1 collects their work to date – a multi-producer, multi-artist double-album compilation of selections with Jamaican vocalists I Jahbar, Early One, Fyah Flames, Dayone, G Sudden, Lukan I, Bookfa, Singin’ Crazy, and Cerassietea.