EMPIRE SOLDIERS Dubplate Vol. 3 (Maxi Vinyle 10')

Description

True to the tradition of sound systems and dubplate, Steve Vibronics delivers with this series of exclusive vinyls his version of the album Empire Soldiers: 3 collector's 4-track EPs, each including 2 "English-style" revisited tracks and their dub versions. With a significant number of albums, collaborations, and live sessions worldwide, one might have thought that Brain Damage and Vibronics would rest a little on their laurels. But that would be underestimating their insatiability and respective hyperactivity, and the sense of challenge and conceptualization of music that they share. The exercise in question here goes beyond a simple meeting, as the artists have been acquainted for a long time through remixes and live sessions. It is rather the ephemeral collision of two universes, for the duration of a tour and an album, leading to the birth of an unlisted third entity. Vibronics and Brain Damage indeed came together around a concept, a surprising narrative inspiration: the experience of Anglo-Caribbean and Franco-African soldiers during the First World War. Academic historian, poet, and songwriter Madu Messenger thus uses the fruit of years of research to present a series of texts dealing with key subjects linking displacement, friendship, war, and death. Pedagogical as Brain Damage's albums often are, 'Empire Soldiers' sheds light on a period of our history that is still often misunderstood, drawing disturbing parallels with contemporary observations of cultural clashes, immigration, and imperial powers. Based on a reflection on this sensitive subject, the project's musicians - with diverse Anglo-French, Jamaican, or Asian origins - allow themselves here to operate a cultural rapprochement opposed to certain models of subservience and communalism. The digital reggae/dub of Brain Damage and Vibronics is thus colored by varied influences, combining the best of know-how with the spontaneity of the encounter and human experience.