Dubus
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Dubus

Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico | Established. Jan 01, 2001 | SELF

Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico | SELF
Established on Jan, 2001
Duo Electronic Reggae

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"The Great Demo Review 2009"

Dubus
Sonidos y Silencio

This is good, gooey electronic dub-funk—somewhere between Nortec Collective and music for Spanish-language pornos starring pasty nerds with lots of moles. They will be my house band at my cool lounge with mid-century modern furniture. I will name a martini after them. I will, however, ban them from singing. MS/dubus.

—Ron Summers - San Diego Reader


Discography

dubtownTIJUANA presenta: duBUS sound system (2003)

antojitos mexicanos vol. 3 (socsub 2006) compilation

sonidos y silencio (2008)

= (2011)

Era Un Libro (2013)

I Am Dubus (2014)

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Bio

Dubus is a Playas de Tijuana based duo of musicians/producers that in the spirit of their previous DIY experience have ventured in the art of photography, design and videography. Musically they combine elements of Electronic DubPunky ReggaeHip Hop and Techno along with World Percussion and Orchestral Instrumentation through the sampling and sequencing of multiple analog electric, digital electronic, virtual and acoustic instruments.

A Dubus track stars with a fingered drum beat that implicitly carries a heavy synthesized bass line, a Casiotone skanky rhythm, almost always on a minor chord, a hypnotic Rhodes piano and/or a melodica leading and an array of sounds that complete the landscape.

Tough not musically trained, Jennifer and Carlos were formed in the artistically inclined schools of Communication Sciences and Architecture respectively, where they worked towards a degree as they spent their free time making music and producing events. It was the late 90’s and they took inspiration in the third wave ska revival scene growing out of Southern California, played organ and trombone in a 7 piece band, and learned from underground heroes like Voodoo Glow SkullsBuck-O-Nine,The Chinkees, Tijuana No and eventually Manu Chao’s Radio Bemba connection the trades of playing live and making tracks in a studio.

When college was almost over, so was Dead Panchos (their band) and elninyo (their crew). Now the possibility of having a personal computer as a tool for writing and producing music seemed more appealing. At the first stages Dubus had two different versions of most musical pieces, one programmed and one that could be played by a live band; it was almost as replicating the previous experience, altough it was characterized by the use of live percussion and the leading prescence of Jenn’s Rhodes piano

Beign guest musicians for Tijuana No, in late 2003 they got an opening slot for their 20 date european tour, so the first Dubus all-electronic live show was presented then with a very basic setup of a laptop computer, a vintage toy keyboard, melodica and trombone. The name of the project was inspired by the 1970 Volkswagen Bus they used to drive and the production techniques used to make reggae dub music in that same era. They’ve so far constructed a monologue through sampling on cassette, 1/4” reel-to-reel tape, minidisc, and now needed to use the large collection of images captured on video and film while giging, driving and partying to complete the whole cinematic experience in a Dubus live show.

By 2008 they got the quintessential piece of gear needed to make this possible, an Akai MPC2500, the drum machine that started it all in the late 80’s. Now with a library of iconic drum sounds and midi programmed synths, Dubus sound reached for the stars and got pretty unclassifiable. Having experimented with orchestral textures in virtual instrumentation previously, the hard beats of Electro were now leading to the dance floor.

By early 2011 Dubus finallly produced a live visual show manipulated in real time from stage and synchronized to the tempo and mood of their music. Later that year they decided to visit Mexico, DF and surrounding cities to get some feedback on where their ideas stood in the context of their own country. Having both grown up in the gloomy beach community of Tijuana, somewhat isolated by it’s geographical context between a toll transpeninsular highway, the Pacific Ocean and the U.S. international border fence, free of mexican media signals during most of their childhood and teenage years, their sound has been shaped mostly by their likings of music coming out of english based radio stations.

Altough it’s only by early 2014 when they’ve decided to incorporate NI’s Maschine into their production scheme that they finally feel the project is ready to take on the world scene, they’ve self published 3 EP’s (dubtownTIJUANA presenta: from 2003, sonidos y silencio from 2008 and Era Un Libro from 2013) and one LP with a compilation of 11 tracks  (= from 2011). Their currently mixing their first official LP, I Am, to be released this autumn and to be followed by another LP, Inna Radicalove, a collaboration with international touring singer/lyricist Lengualerta by next spring. Dubus’s engine is finely-tuned and ready to go on the road with their drum machines, samplers, synthesizers, projector and perform a different audiovisual experience every time they step on stage.

Band Members