Digidub galore at Couleur Café's Dub Stage
Go back 03 July, 2023
As usual, Couleur Cafe Festival kicked off the Belgian festival season inna fine style. Known for its diverse music programming, the festival is a go-to for the open-minded music lover with a heart for music from all over this wonderful globe we all get to throd. The audience could indulge in an excellent line-up with a.o. Seun Kuti, Coely, Protoje, Blackwave, Roméo Elvis, Thundercat and Kabaka Pyramid. Always good to catch some other vibes than just the reggae vibe. But you know us, petty stoners, we’re all about the dub. So we quickly found the road to the Dub Stage, hosted by Reggaebus. Until last year, the Brussels based crew Rootscorner took care of the sound and programme of this stage, so we were curious what we could expect from this change.
We were a bit sceptic at first when we saw the big P.A. system provided by Clear Sound. The absence of an authentic soundsystem stack operated by reggae audiophiles seemed to confirm what we were afraid of: the Dub Stage became more of a rave thing. Not exactly what we, personally, are looking for in the dance. But, is that necessarily a problem? Maybe not, because we can’t speak for everybody. And we’ve seen P.A. powered dub stages before. Clear Sound provided more than enough pressure and the speaker worshippers sure seemed to like it. Plus, a man can count the few hosting soundsystems that can actually power an area of this size on just one of his hands. We might prefer the intimate, cozy atmosphere under the trees from the Rootscorner days. But hey, we were here to dub, so we swallowed our pride and just went with the bassssss.
Saturday had a varied line-up with different styles. One of the most notable performances was by King Shiloh from Amsterdam, who carried his roots standard proudly, together with the roots empress of the Netherlands, Black Omolo. King Shiloh has become something of a ‘certified vibes and quality’-label in the dub scene. The following of this Dutch crew grew even more during the lockdowns, when they kept our hopes up with the Healing of the Nation podcasts. During his set, bredda Neil managed to enchant the audience with his deep bass lines and heavy drums. Heavy but steady culture vibe going on, you’ve got to give Shilo this: he knows how to build up a set. Black Omolo delivered as usual, chanting Rastafari as if she were possessed by the spirit of His Imperial Majesty himself.
The next thing we didn’t want to miss was Iration Steppas. Iration Steppas is a pioneer in the dub scene and has been a major influence in the development of digital dub. Since Mark Iration is known as a one-man-sound-party who can rock any soundsystem, he didn’t let us down and treated us with old and new school selection and some precious dubplates. Nice surprise to hear that Unlisted Fanatic’s ‘Ubuntu Time’, released by Dub-Up Hifi on a very limited edition, is still in Mark’s playlist. The tune is a certified dancefloor filler and still gets every hand in the dance up high.
Bringing a very different vibe on Saturday were the Bristolians with the smoothest voices; Joe Yorke and Eeyun Purkins. A welcome break, nice intermission there. Joe Yorke is one of our favourite singers at the moment and a man to keep an eye on. Make sure you check the little juwel he released with his band The Co-Operators in 2023, ‘A Distant Beat’. The bass huggers took a break, lovers of vocals stayed in for a treat.
And that brings us to a little point of criticism to the promotors. The Dub Stage was a great spot for party dubbers, but the rootsy vibes and sweet vocals of the Yorke-Purkins show were a relief after many hours of heavy digital uptempo dub. A man needs a break some times. God knows at least I do.
Opinions in the dance were rather divided about the hardtek set of Vandal. It’s an extreme of a certain style that took the largest part of the Dub Stage, at the expense of roots and culture vibes. Many visitors missed the depth and emotion so characteristic of dub music's roots and culture. That being said, grumpy old men as we sometimes are, it’s clear that the essence of the festival and dubstage was to bring people together through music. Despite the artists' different styles and approaches, the ultimate goal is to share and celebrate a common love for dub music. The Couleur Cafe Festival showed that despite different preferences, we are all working towards a common goal - to promote and celebrate the diversity of dub music. Reggaebus sure took the road for a big heavy dubparty that verged on a techno vibe at certain moments, but there sure was an audience for that in the Atomium Park. A lot of styles have their place in the dance and you know what they say in Brussels about _Italic_des gouts et des couleurs.
And who are we to pretend we'd be any smarter than the beautiful people of all nations, creed and color we saw enjoying themselves under a golden sun, in one of Brussels's greenest corner? Can't blame a youth for what mek him shake and rattle.