***ZamZam’s first encounter with the music of DIGGORY KENRICK was “The Lion Flute,” a wind-led cut to one of Jamaican music’s toughest riddims, the Mighty Diamonds’ “Africa.” Years later it still hasn’t left the box, and it led us on a quest to acquire as many of his tunes as possible… E3 became obsessed with reaching out to him for a collaboration, and “Temple Duel” b/w “Temple Dub” is the resulting plate. Kenrick’s signature sound is haunting and richly melodic, phased and distorted, lending an ancient-to-the-future vibe to everything he touches, whether rootical collaborations or left-field version excursions. ALTER ECHO & E3 and HEADLAND had been wanting to collaborate for some time, and Kenrick’s high-plains-meets-far-east vibes seemed the perfect opportunity to build something truly unique. Strictly limited to 700 10" copies for the world.
10" $13.75
11/08/2019
***Bristol’s DUBKASM is an absolute pillar of the worldwide roots, dub, and sound system movement. In fact it’s hard to imagine the contemporary UK dub scene without them. Massive releases on Peng! Sound, Bristol Archive, ZamZam, and especially their own Sufferah’s Choice and Dubkasm labels have made Stryda & Digistep household names among lovers of contemporary sound system reggae. Holding down and forwarding traditional dubplate culture for 25 years now, “Two X Two” showcases two slices of two different tunes and demonstrates why they are among the world’s most beloved groups, a link back to the elder generations of Bristol sound, and a beacon to the younger. “Discipline,” presented in two pieces, cuts to the chase with a massive, relentless, fully saturated digital bassline blasting straight into the future of dubwise. No surprise that it has a ‘Year 3000’ vibe, as it was, in STRYDA's words “originally built for Iration Steppas to run at Teachings In Dub against his pupil Sinai Sound. Opening with a beautifully resonant piano figure, “The Key” featuring ASHANTI SELAH is a propulsive steppers, also presented in two pieces, this one with a galloping live-drums feel, DIGI's sax surfacing majestically through the flurry of syndrum and rim shots. Strictly limited to 600 copies for the world.
12" $14.50
11/08/2019
***Khaliphonic 11 is a truly epic release from one of our most prolific artists, BRENDON MOELLER aka ECOLOGIST aka BEAT PHARMACY. In just the last two years, Moeller has released on labels as varied as Echocord, Silent Season, Kynant, and Rohs!, to name only the most well-known. Recognized globally for a singularly organic and dubwise approach to techno, we are proud to have a close working relationship with an artist who coaxes humanity and warmth from machines like few others. The Dub Purpose EP is one of his finest achievements. As we planned a third ZamZam release from our favorite well of hardware sonics, four tracks emerged as comprising a set that simply did not want to be separated. The four tunes that make up this EP felt like chapters in a single gorgeous narrative, and so a 12” was born. The Dub Purpose EP does in four tunes what many LPs struggle to do in eight—it builds a cohesive narrative arc that moves from menace, to exploration, through mystery, closing with beauty. Edition of 500 copies.
12" $15.50
03/15/2019
***Known for a broad swath of genre-obliterating club tracks on crucial labels including Critical, Exit, and 50Weapons, SAM BINGA approached us earlier this year with a radically different kind of project, a collaboration with WELFARE, true junglist and label boss at D&B bastion Rua Sound. The result of their team-up is Conamara Fieldworks. Its unique inspiration and patient process are best described by the duo themselves: "In early November 2016, we set off through the bleakness of an Irish November into the wilderness that is Conamara, County Galway, Ireland, with about half an idea of what we wanted to do. Our friend Laney had been kind enough to allow us the use of a 300 year old cottage overlooking the sea, itself belonging to her family through generations which she was bit by bit restoring to its former glory. The isolation was perfect - very little in the way of creature comforts, no network coverage, but plenty of turf for the stove and Guinness for the belly. Our routine for the next few days consisted of trudging the length of the rugged coastline in search of interesting sounds we could potentially process into usable elements for some kind of dub/dub techno-inspired composition...This took us inside tidal caves and abandoned ruins, across sheep fields, up and down mountains and winding country lanes, in and out of the odd pub, under upturned boats and (carefully) across huge washes of seaweed-covered shoreline. Using our handheld recorder (shouts Danny Scrilla for the...
LP $15.50
11/09/2018
***BACK IN STOCK!!! PAUL DICKOW aka STRATEGY is a musical polymath with a signature sound derived from his immersion in hardware-based electronic music. He has spent close to two decades traveling freely through house, techno, rave, noise, ambient, and sounds more difficult to categorize. Strategy’s sound is inimitable because it is literally built by hand—his hands. Through all of this sonic journeying, including multiple full length releases, a constant has been his love of reggae and dub, yet somehow a proper dub album has never emerged—until now. After two much-loved 7” singles on ZamZam—to say nothing of dubwise excursions on Idle Hands, Shockout, Peak Oil, 100% Silk and more - “Dub Mind Paradigm” is the fulfillment of a clear, simple goal. "I set out to make a full set of dub tracks good enough to make an album—something that had always eluded me-- and it worked, finally. A simple exercise in seeing if we could launch the capsule to orbit Planet Reggae and make it home again.” Reaching Planet Reggae, the album explores analog caverns of dubwise at all tempos, from the 80s to 140, full of the ghosts of ancient and future technologies, glimmering shards of hope among heaps of folly, ruin and rubble. Music fans with crates deeper than the contemporary will find shades of Wackies, Firehouse, Unity Sound, Burial Mix and more, but only winks and nods… no one sounds like Strategy, and Strategy sounds like no one. Edition of 700 copies. Very...
12" $17.75
07/06/2018