Dub drive, engage! (Tectonic/Multiverse Music)

You may not be that into dub music, but there’s a good chance you’ve heard the work of Scientist (real name Hopeton Brown). The reggae station in “Grand Theft Auto III” consisted of tracks from his classic 1981 album “Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires.” Oh yeah, he’s all about awesome, goofy titles.

Now Scientist has a new album for you and yes, it’s spaced-out enough to deserve mention here: “The Scientist Launches Dubstep Into Outer Space.” Those of you already in the know can skip the next two paragraphs because I’m going to quickly break down the basics behind dub and dubstep:

Dub: In short, dub is remixed reggae music. It first emerged as a subgenre in 1960s Jamaica and is sort of the granddaddy of all remixing/DJing art forms. A dub artist takes reggae music and manipulates it into a new creation. The early dub pioneers generally depended on improvised electronic equipment to carry this out. Some of the more noted techniques are delay effects, reverb, sirens, gunshots and, my personal favorite, the dub horn. If you want to learn more, check out the 2009 documentary “Dub Echoes” (trailer below) and this AVclub write-up.

Dubstep: Just as dub grew out of reggae, dubstep grew out of dub. Dubstep originated in London in 1999-2000, and it continues to develop as an electronic music genre. The overall dubstep vibe is typically dark, grimy, and experimental and relies less on the reggae aspects of dub. You’ll also hear cool movie samples, but mostly bass lines, echoes and drum patterns. That’s a short, imperfect explanation. For more, check out this dubstep documentary from Mary Anne Hobbs.

But back to Scientist: “The Scientist Launches Dubstep Into Outer Space” is noteworthy in that you have one of the all-time-great dub engineers remixing new compositions from noted dubstep artists such as Shackleton, Jack Sparrow and Distance. The set features two discs: one of the Scientist-versioned tracks and one of the originals.

The original tracks alone are great, but when they’re passed back into the Scientist’s hands, the results are even more incredible. You get meticulously engineered, spaced-out sonic landscapes. Here, have a taste of what I’m talking about. Here’s the original track “U” by Kind Midas Sound. And here’s “U Dub Part 2,” Scientist’s take on the track:

You won’t find much space-themed about this release besides the awesome, intentionally amateur album art for each disc (the originals album cover is featured above and you can find the Scientist mixes cover here). But as with a lot of electronic music, outer space and the psychedelic are always hanging out in the thematic wings.

So there you have it: A quick look at how dub and dubstep work and a little background on one heck of a cool-looking new release. Multiverse Music has all the tracks up on its Soundcloud page for preview, and you can buy the tracks or album from iTunes, Zune, Amazon or wherever you like to buy your tunes.

As always, you can catch the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast on iTunes, Zune and the RSS feed.

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