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Earthquake Studio - Dub Harder Than Steel
A trenchant UK steppas dub masterpiece, 1993, mercifully returns to vinyl for the first time in over 30 years. Pure soundsystem tungsten produced by TNT Roots and Winston Dread, with OG copies known to trade for triple figures, making this remastered edition a no brainer. As regularly deployed by Aba Shanti-I and Iration Steppas sounds - both titans in their field - Earthquake Studio’s ‘Dub Harder Than Steel’ is a definitive lodestone of UK digi-dub; a distinctive mutation of the original JA style, seeded on blighty by descendants of the Windrush generation. The sound’s influence resonates deeply with the roots of so much dance music that we hold close to heart on this island - jungle/D&B, UKG, dubstep, and beyond - leading, over time, this particularly platter to be hailed a true holy grail. Cooked up on a relatively basic array of a DK-80 synth, Yamaha keyboard, Casio RZ-1 drum machine, and an Atari 1040 computer running Cubase V2.0, Earthquake Studio’s innovative sorcery is found in the way they spatialise and massage the machines’ frequencies to inimitably mystic, transcendent, propulsive effect. Subs go lower than the Dead Sea and natty melodies ring out like reedy sirens according to a unique democracy of the frequency spectrum that really comes into its own with just amplification. Trust laptop speakers will not suffice; you need a proper rig to get the best out of this one: the bigger, the better. Echoing the likes of Jah Shaka’s ‘Commandments of Dub’ precedents, but in a digickal style & pattern in step with the times, and even more concentrated to fundamentals, ‘Dub Harder Than Steel’ is as good as it gets for the type of proper gut-rumble, nose-flare, heavy troddin’ pressure whose impact can be heard across UK soundsystem music, especially the sort of stuff practised by Digital, Muslimgauze, DMZ, or Raime. Don’t sleep!
