Browse by Artist: DUB SPENCER & TRANCE HILL

Artist:	DUB SPENCER & TRANCE HILL
Title:	Nitro
Label:	ECHO BEACH (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	EB 057CD

This is the debut full-length release from Swiss trio Dub Spencer & Trance Hill (Adrian Pflugshaupt, Marcel Stalder and Christian Niederer) on Echo Beach. Though they are self-proclaimed heroes of the spaghetti western hills, you won't find syrupy country tunes on Nitro, instead they indulge in space echo and plate reverb at the drop on '3'. Dub Spencer & Trance Hill roll into town armed with heavy reggae grooves and space electro sounds, all carried by pumping bass lines that almost hypnotically clear the path and gently caress your innards. Expect a wagon-load of live, laid-back, instrumental, almost psychedelic reggae, played with virtuosity, washed-out grooves, breaks, hints of other tracks, and all so thrillingly slooooow that they're sure to lose any shootout. Also find shuffling drums, warm bass lines, a gentle backbeat piano and lots and lots of echo. You could easily compare Dub Spencer & Trance Hill with Scorn meets King Tubby meets Joshua Redman. This is one wild, loping pony ride.

Artist:	DUB SPENCER & TRANCE HILL
Title:	Return of the Supercops
Label:	ECHO BEACH (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	EB 063CD

This is the second full-length release from Swiss trio Dub Spencer & Trance Hill (Adrian Pflugshaupt, Marcel Stalder and Christian Niederer) on Echo Beach. Monster dub spaghetti Western enters the second round: on Return Of The Supercops, these asphalt cowboys delve even deeper into the essence of dub, but at the same time manage to amp up the rock element. Psychedelic, instrumental reggae tunes are interrupted by poisonously piercing guitars, country sections are transformed into darkly limping grooves, sleepy dubby beats morph into pounding trance. And everything is driven relentlessly forward by a pumping bass line that almost hypnotically clears the path to the center and gently caresses the stomach. In 2006, Dub Spencer & Trance Hill unleashed their debut on to the prairies of the German and European music press and caused quite a dust storm. Nitro got top marks from countless magazines and was voted "Dub Album of the Month" by the German reggae Bible, Riddim. Cowboy up!

Artist:	DUB SPENCER & TRANCE HILL
Title:	Riding Strange Horses
Label:	ECHO BEACH (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	EB 071CD

This is the third album by space cowboys Dub Spencer & Trance Hill for the Echo Beach label and it sees the four Swiss musicians herding together a pack of very strange steeds indeed. The strange horses come from famous stables (Falco, The Clash, Genesis, Deep Purple, The Catch, M, Tullio De Piscopo, Grauzone, etc.) and have notched up umpteen top-ten hits over the past three decades, albeit in disciplines that have about as much in common with dub as the forlorn pink rocking horse has with the dust-dry desert. Humor dominates the choice of tracks: monumental pop classics, schmaltzy rock-ballads and grimy hits -- the stuff that teenage dreams were made of. The tracklist is heavy on school-party classics and cult hits, all lathered-up and shaved in the best dub style! The aim was to keep the vocals as authentic as possible, and so the band did the obvious thing and contacted the copyright holders: their version of the 1984 British chart hit "25 Years" by The Catch features the original vocals by John Savannah. The soul reggae classic "When I Fall In Love" brings in the master and composer himself, Ken Boothe, and for the new wave hits "Echo Beach" and "Pop Muzik," Martha Johnson from Toronto and Robin Scott from London re-recorded their vocals. Naturally, it wouldn't be the same without dub-master Lee "Scratch" Perry, whose inimitable voice crowns a version of his own manifest "Blackboard Jungle." More local vocal power comes courtesy of William White, one of the most soulful voices in Switzerland; he sings the classic Deep Purple track "Smoke On The Water." The album also contains their version of Falco's scandalous "Jeanny." Fueled by the same fighting spirit of the duo they named themselves after, the Swiss band have transformed each track into an Italo karaoke version with a heavy dub feel. Familiar old hits are distilled down to their very essence and are reborn in truly great new versions. Also includes versions of songs by Ennio Morricone, Martha And The Muffins, The Ruts, Metallica, and W.S. Burroughs.

Artist:	DUB SPENCER & TRANCE HILL
Title:	The Clashification Of Dub
Label:	ECHO BEACH (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	EB 081CD

The Swiss space-cowboys, Dub Spencer & Trance Hill bring their fourth album of superlative dub inna sci-fi control. Last time they chose a strange combination of cheap '80s songs and monumental rock standards for student parties. This time, The Clashification Of Dub is wrapped by the most influential band of revolution, pop, rock, punk, politics and dancing over the last 30 years: The Clash. Meet The Clash hits (almost all of them?) like "Guns Of Brixton," "London Calling," etc. -- the compact crossover of sweet and lovely reggae vibes matched with sci-fi tech power, partly orchestrated with innovative production and mixing skills. An album of incredible beauty and power featuring smart and contemporary dubness. Dub Spencer & Trance Hill's vision of cult is unique -- it is alchemy, prophecy and acoustic ecology encased in a magical, timeless atmosphere.

Artist:	DUB SPENCER & TRANCE HILL
Title:	The Clashification Of Dub
Label:	ECHO BEACH (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	EB 081LP

180 gram LP version. Limited edition of 555 numbered copies for the world. Features eight of the twelve tracks from the CD version. The Swiss space-cowboys, Dub Spencer & Trance Hill bring their fourth album of superlative dub inna sci-fi control. Last time they chose a strange combination of cheap '80s songs and monumental rock standards for student parties. This time, The Clashification Of Dub is wrapped by the most influential band of revolution, pop, rock, punk, politics and dancing over the last 30 years: The Clash. Meet The Clash hits (almost all of them?) like "Guns Of Brixton," "London Calling," etc. -- the compact crossover of sweet and lovely reggae vibes matched with sci-fi tech power, partly orchestrated with innovative production and mixing skills. An album of incredible beauty and power featuring smart and contemporary dubness. Dub Spencer & Trance Hill's vision of cult is unique -- it is alchemy, prophecy and acoustic ecology encased in a magical, timeless atmosphere.

Artist:	DUB SPENCER & TRANCE HILL
Title:	Too Big To Fail
Label:	ECHO BEACH (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	EB 088CD

Dub Spencer & Trance Hill, Switzerland's dub heroes have teamed up on this new project with Umberto Echo, one of the most sought-after dub remixers this side of the English Channel. In 2006, Dub Spencer & Trance Hill released their Echo Beach debut Nitro (EB 057CD), a sort of Spaghetti Western in dub with plenty of dynamite. Since then, the Swiss musicians have added three further notches to their list of releases -- Return Of The Supercops (EB 063CD), Riding Strange Horses (EB 071CD) and, most recently, The Clashification Of Dub (EB 081CD/LP) -- as well as several echo-laden cover versions of classic party hits such as "Jeanny" or "Enter Sandman" and canonized songs like "London Calling," earning them kudos all over the country and setting feet tapping. On their last European tour, the dubsters cooperated with the Munich-based mix master Umberto Echo, whose illustrious profile spans several pages. For his debut album Dubtrain, the jazz label Enja (Chet Baker, Abdullah Ibrahim, Rabih Abu-Khalil) set up a special sub-label, Enja19. Last year, Echo Beach released the album Dub The World (EB 074CD), which featured his distinctive, ultra-precise dub take on tunes by Sly & Robbie, Seeed, Damian Marley, Stereo MCs and Gentleman. At their joint club and festival performances, the combination of live band and live mixer turned out to be the proverbial "marriage made in heaven." On the decks, Umberto Echo transformed Dub Spencer & Trance Hill's riddims and melodies into thrilling, transcendental sound collages. The vibe was so good that they decided to hit the studio for a joint session after the tour: founding member Marcel Stalder (bass) and his bandmates Julian Dillier (drums), Philipp Greter (keyboards) and Markus Meier (guitar) met up with Umberto Echo at his studio, plugged in and let rip. And here are the results. It is no exaggeration to say that this meeting of minds is for continental Europe what Scientist Meets Roots Radics was for Jamaica and Massive Attack vs. Mad Professor was for England: an alliance too big to fail.

Previous Page Index of Artists Next Page