DUBXANNE a.k.a. Guido Craveiro – POPWAVE IN DUB

New Wave and Dub Reggae are two children of the same generation, separated at birth, and yet now united in triumph: 15 years after his Echo Beach tribute to British pop pioneers “The Police”, Dubxanne returns to the roots and infects ten classics of the new wave, post-punk and synth-pop era with the dub-reggae virus.

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. It was… the eighties. Whether Gothic or New Romantic, everyone was fascinated by the possibilities offered by synths and drum machines. One warmed to the unheard-of clarity of the songs that became the anthems of a generation: “Fade to Grey”, “Running up that Hill”, “Video Killed The Radiostar”, “Heart of Glass”, some sung by amazingly feminine boys or novel, self-confident pop divas like Kate Bush, Debbie Harry and Cindy Lauper. At the same time, reggae music is conquering the world from Jamaica, and in the wake of it a revolutionary production practice: dub. Analogue at first, but also increasingly digital over the years.

Jump forward into the zeros: In 2007, producer Guido Craveiro released a full-length album of Dub-Versions, based on the songs of British post-punk trio The Police, under the name Dubxanne. Since then, the studio inventor Craveiro has sharpened his skillset as a sub-keyboardist and live sound man for the Berlin band Seeed, as well as a producer/mixer for Dub Inc, Querbeat, Dellé and many more. After 15 years it was time for Dubxanne for a sequel: “Popwave in Dub” presents ten classics of the New Wave era as reggae adaptations, with room for dubstep and of course the supreme discipline: the dub versions. Ten songs and six dub versions between nostalgia and reinvention close the circle that began to emerge in the eighties: Here the cold pulsing of the oscillators, where millions of teenage souls could warm themselves, there the warm sound of Caribbean reggae and dub, carrying messages from a harsh world of cold facts.

He was joined on vocals by singer Sara Lugo (“Heart of Glass”), the twin stars Berise and Tracy Merano, who sings about the radio star’s death, and singer Denham, who reminds us that Bwoys also essentially want to have fun. The Luxembourg jazz singer Claire Parsons follows Kate Bush’s footsteps up the hill without getting out of breath, and the non-binary vocal enigma Toogah shoulders three classics of end-time melancholy: “Mad World” by Tears for Fears, “Lullaby” by The Cure and “Fade to Grey” by synth-popper Visage. The album is the latest in a loose series of dub sets, with which Echo Beach pays a dubwise tribute to the defining sounds of the ’80s. See: Dubxanne – The Police in Dub, Carl Douglas: Kung Fu Fighting, Martha & The Muffins: Echo Beach, Robert Palmer in Dub etc.