Kalbata (Ariel Tagar) is a techno & 2-step producer who previously released on labels such as Soul Jazz, Brownswood and Greenmoney.
Kalbata did a string of high profile remixes for artists such as Fat Freddy’s Drop, Spank Rock, The Count & Sinden and Roll Deep, collaborated with Warrior Queen and is also the man behind reissue labels Fortuna and Spring Hill Records.
Mixmonster (Uri Wertheim) is the man behind funk band ‘The Apples’ as well as a member of cut-n-paste duo Radiotrip.
Ariel and Uri went into their home studio in Tel Aviv, Israel with the purpose of recording a 100% analogue dub album in the spirit of the late King Tubby and the early dancehall era of the late 70’s and early 80’s.
A 16-track tape machine and an old analogue mixing desk were their main instruments, with musicians playing live all throughout the album.
A year after recording the instrumental backing tracks, they travelled to Kingston, Jamaica and started tracking down their favourite singers and deejays from days gone by.
The resulting long player is on the one hand truly loyal to the origins of Jamaican music and on the other, a well produced forward thinking album, sounding totally fresh in today’s music aesthetics. It will also rattle your speakers in ways not heard since the heyday of reggae & dub!
The highlights of this quite amazing long player are many, but from the beautiful & mellow Prisoner In Love feat. Little John, through the utterly original, drum driven title track Congo Beat The Drum on which Major Mackerel displays his amazing vocal talents as the earth shattering rhythm shakes the floor.
‘Congo Beat The Drum’ is released on 28th April 2014