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Twilight Circus Dub Sound System


    " Dub Plate Selection " Music Reviews

    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
    Dub Plate Selection

    A dub plate is a unique acetate platter created specifically for a DJ sound system, but with the elementally deep bass generated by Twilight Circus' Ryan moore (a Canadian expatriate living in the Netherlands, who essentially is Twilight Circus), "tectonic plates" seems a more appropriate term. The bottomless bass and rubbery tempo of this music conjure images of massive primordial forces, the menace of a slow-moving lava flow. These dub plates originate from twilight Circus' dub performances, representing both new material and unreleased remixes of older tracks. They navigate the intersecting sound-spaces of reggae-patterned dub, jungle and ambient electronica, cavorting through cavernous reverb, otherworldly electronic effects and the ocassional deconstructed melodic fragment. Delightfully, this is no gratuitous elecronica samplefest - in fact it's not a samplefest at all - because Moore avoids the usual drum boxes and electronic toys in favor of fat bass lines and real drums (supplied ob three plates by no less than Sly Dunbar). So there's blood and sweat amongst the circuitry.
    (M, Box 469, 6500 AL Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
    - John Baxter, Option



    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
    Dub Plate Selection
    (M)

    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System come again with another modern take on classic Jamaican dub. They take the liquid feel of dub instruments to the next level, with atomspherric reverbations, live sitars and flutes as well as the traditional configurations of drum, bass and keyboards. New dub recordings often make use of the soud aesthetics that were pioneered in the '70s and early '80s to create sinister Illbient soundscapes but carely does an artist relatively new to the form recapture the uplifting yet haunted feel of early dub as well as Twilight does. "Sir Dub Plate" is particlarly adept at creating a positive vibe with wonderfully juicy reverb- drenched organs while "Beneath The valley Of The Dub" is a more melancholic affair with a wistful sitat dwelling beneath the echos of bass and drums. This satisfying DIY release may be somewhat hard to come by as it was released by the mastermind behind the music. Ryan Moore (formerly of the Legendary Pink Dots), himself, but is well worth searching for. All in all, this is a wonderfully spaced-out modern, dub odyssey into higher levels of eerie relaxation.

    Daniel Chamberlin, URB



    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
    Dub Plate Selection
    M/Netherlands/CD

    Ryan Moore, producer and instrumentalist for Twilight Circus, is launching deep roots dub music into the next century. This has been evident throughout his many recent CD and limited vinyl releases. Now with his sixth release "Dub Plate Selection" we get the definitive look into the studio skills and reverence this man has for true dubwise music. "Filter 13" has a gorgeous ambient feel, drawing from the sound of mid-80s English, Jah Shaka and Mad Professor, utilizing sweet organ bits and a wandering bass line that knows its finally destination is the heart. Expert use of a classic Revolutionaries sample grounds the track "Trouble Dub Plate" with electronic elements added on top of the rhythm loop, effectively linking the past to the present. "Lowell and Nine-Shaka Dubplate" was a dub cut exclusively for the still active dubmaster Mr. Shaka whose legendary nights still draw capacity audiences. This tune is appropriately 'dread' with tis slow, throbbing bassline and militant keys. One of the highlights is "Sir Dub Plate", a wicked melodic and bluesy number that's as sweet as ice cream on a hot day. Tacked on to this disc are some excellent alternate mixes, dubs of dubs if you will, that lend a different feeling to the instrumentation - oh and watch out for the surprise 'hidden' track 13. Again, the highest recommendation for this Amsterdam by way of Caada-based music alchemist; the Twilight is just now dawning.

    XLR8R, Tomas



    This album is already the sixth release of Twilight Circus Dub Sound System, the Nijmegen (The Netherlands) based dub outfit led by Canadian Ryan Moore, who was heavily influenced by dub and U.K./JA roots at the start of his career in 1981. Recordings of Twilight Circus Dub Sound System are made almost entirely with live instrumentation and use no programming or computer sequencing - the few samples or loops are played live and "on the fly" to the multi track. Bassist/multi-instrumentalist Moore fully succeeds in combining his reggae and dub influences - which unmistakable shine through in his dub outings - with his own inventive and fresh "dubbing" ideas leading to refreshing modern dub grooves. "Dub Plate Selection" collects upbeat new tracks and special Dub Plate versions of older or unreleased material, together making this a varied and enjoyable album. Additional musicians include renown Sly Dunbar (tracks 4, 8 & 12), Sky Juice (track 4) and Mystery Guests (tracks 1, 10 & 14).

    Teacher & Mr. T.
    Reggae Vibes Mag, The Netherlands
    http://www.reggae-vibes.com/rev_sin/dubplate.htm

    Rating : from 5 (excellent) to 1 (poor)
    Vocals : -
    Backing : 4
    Production : 4
    Sound quality : 5
    Sleeve : -



    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
    "Dub Plate Selection" M Records CD 160

    Overall impression: very, very good! This is Ryan's 4th full length album in just 3 years, and they get better with each release. I believe this cd is comprised primarily of new material, with four or five remixes of songs from the previous albums (Beneath the Valley .., Lowell and Nine, Indian, etc). This collection continues the more textured sound of the previous album "Bin Shaker Dub", and would no doubt me familiar to anyone who's seen TC live in the past few years. Swirling electronics, keyboards, piano, echo chamber drums and driving dub bass ... all of the common trademark sounds we've come to know and love of Ryan Moore. Really lovely stuff. A+ packaging, wonderfully happy and colorful graphics with personalized art and initials by Ryan in each individually numbered cd. Highly recommended, especially if you're a fan of the previous TC or any other dub music.

    Mark Weddle
    http://www2.southwind.net/~markw/cdreviews/dubplate.html



    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
    Bin Shaker Dub (M Records)
    Dub Plate Selection (M Records)


    When I was growing up and discovering reggae music in the mid-to-late-seventies, Toronto was a terrific place to do it in. I moved into my first apartment smack-dab in the middle of the Jamaican section of town (immortalized by Black Uhuru in their song "Youth of Eglington"). Some 100,000 people of Jamaican birth and/or extraction were said to live in town at that time; one or two of them had already established themselves as major reggae stars before leaving Kingston, like Leroy Sibbles of the Heptones, whom I never missed, whatever the venue or time of night. The whole neighbourhood was dotted with sound systems, constantly filling their air with reggae and dub and luring a youngster with a fresh paycheck in his breast pocket to spend that ready cash on un-shrinkwrapped vinyl featuring dubsters and toasters like King Tubby, U-Roy, Big Youth and a myriad of others. I just never had heard anything like the bone-rattling quake of dub reggae. Made rock 'n' roll seem dreadfully anaemic in comparison.

    Maybe Ryan Moore grew up in a similar neighbourhood way over on the other side of Canada in Vancouver. For how else to explain the emergence of some of the most gritty, thumping, spine-loosening dub currently on the market - from an ex-patriate Canadian now residing in the Netherlands? His biography states that Moore has been making music since 1981, but now the dub bug seems to have bit him and bit him good, because this music reaches deep, deep down. Enhancing the pleasure is knowing that the recordings are made "almost entirely with live instrumentation and use no programming or computer sequencing - the few samples or loops are played live and ' on the fly ' to the multi track". An impressive one-man rubber band, in other words.

    These two CDs surfaced in 1997 and 1998, respectively, and both landed with a resounding "thud", echoing round and round my apartment and my head. Indeed, the opening track on the older of the two releases ( Bin Shaker Dub), called "Thunder Mix", is aptly titled - a positively thunderous bass line sets the agenda for the rest of the two hours to follow. "Killer" is a killah of a track - flute toots, rimshots and cowbell clanks over a rich bed of sweet, sparse keyboard touches and a heavy, relentless dull thrumming. This is followed by "Lowell & Nine", a track featuring the masterly drumming of Sly Dunbar and one so good, you have to hear it more and more - so fortunately there are two more versions on Dub Plate Selection.

    Dub Plate Selection collects various "dub plates" or "specials" which (the press sheet informs me) "are one of a kind lacquer acetates or DAT tapes containing exclusive songs or mixes given by produceers and music artists to select djs and sound systems". It begins with "The Ride", as ambient a dub track as you would ever wish to hear - a flute flourish introduces quiet hints of tablas, Namlook-like electronic noodlings and then this time the bass enters smoothly, before being joined by rootsy drumming; the melody which takes center stage after about a minute is just lovely. If there resides a "true" original copy of the ideal ambient dub track in some world of Platonic ideals, then this is it.

    The rest of the album settles down into grooves that grab you both instinctually and intellectually. So it goes all the way through both of these joyous CDs - life-affirming but dreadly-serious roots dub building the framework for a broad palette of melodic colours. Ryan Moore carries on in a tradition with its roots firmly in 1970s JA while putting 1990s technology to work for him - low-end perfection. Shelf-life: Eternity.

    For a discography and ordering information, go to:
    www.bsg-inc.com/twilight


    Stephen Fruitman
    Department of the History of Ideas
    Umea University
    S-901 87 Umea, Sweden

    stephen.fruitman@idehist.umu.se



    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
    " Dub Plate Selection " CD
    (M, Netherlands)

    An otherwise useless friend of mine once described dub as perfect pot-smoking music. Now, I wouldn't know, but I'll take his word. Dub is derived from reggae, only with the drums and bass all the way forward in the mix, and everything else smothered in reverb and studio effects. Y'know all those "remix" CDs? Y'know the term "drum n'bass"? The whole idea started in the 70's with dub. Nowadays, it's a genre that isn't necessarily a remix of anything else. Ryan Moore, the Canadian member of Marillion-for-the-90's prog-rock band the Legendary Pink Dots, is the Twilight Circus, and I'll be damned if he doesn't sound like he's straight from Jamaica.

    Nothing about this (or any other TC) record looks or sounds like a Pink Dots record. In fact, if you didn't know, you'd probably never make the connection. That's a big plus for Moore. The resemblance to classic dub is uncanny; Twilight Circus has far more in commom with King Jammy than with Bill Laswell (whose "dub" frequently stretches the word's definition quite far). There really isn't anything about it that a reggae fan would find at all unusual. On this, his third CD, Moore picks up the pace with more upbeat tunes (quick, like Dub Syndicate's "Echomania") than on "Vol.1" and a couple of bonus cuts from a 12". Very nice, consistant stuff, perfect for hot Florida weekends by the pool. - Howard Stelzer (Intransitive Review)

    contact: M Records, P.O.Box 469, 6500 Al Nijmegen, the Netherlands
    www.bsg-inc.com/twilight



    Ex-pat Ryan Moore releases his best dub beatz yet on this collection of new cuts and versions made for DJs. As the Twilight Circus Dub Sound System he has been gaining live experience opening shows for the Legendary Pink Dots ( with whom he plays bass ). What moves the crowd are these new, more upbeat grooves, a couple which feature the expertise of drum master Sly Dunbar. After five albums, Moore's dub is more sophisticated and psychedelic than previous, while paying homage to the classic form. These prime, bass-heavy 70 minutes should hold you until Staalplaat's upcoming Twilight Circus remix album arrives, with several big name producers promised.

    chris twomey - !*@#EXCLAIM! April '98 (Canada)



    Canadian multi-instrumentalist Ryan Moore, meanwhile, is just as happy taking sound cues from the towering dub shakedown of Jah Shaka as the thud of pneumatic road levellers. Ringmaster oh the Twilight Circus Dub Sound System, Moore's latest offering, Dub Plate Selection, ( M **** ) is grass-roots dub at its heaviest and most adventurous: one to fuck off the neighbours with.

    Simon McEwen - VOX ( England ) May '98 rating: 4 stars



    Neben leuten wie Bill Laswell, Mick Harris und Dub Syndicate gehort das Twilight Circus Dub Sound System zur speerspitze des innovativen Dub der 90er Jahre. Wie man weiss, steckt hinter allen dubprojekten immer ein kluger Kopf. In diesem Fall ist es der des Bassisten und Schlagzeugers Ryan Moore, der nebenbei auch noch mit der '80er Jahre Psych-Wave-Combo The Legendary Pink Dots zugange ist. DUB PLATE SELECTION ist eine kollektion von neuen bwz. unveroffenlichten Tracks und eben jene "Dub Plates", also Acetate-Platten oder Dat-Bandern, die (manchmal) nur ein einziges Mal gepresst/produziert werden und exklusive Mixe fur DJs enthalten. Twilight Circus Dub Sound Sytem steht in der tradition der grossen der 70er jahre Produktionen des Dub (was nicht zuletzt am mehrheitlichen Einsatz von Live-instrumenten zu erkennen ist) und transponiert diese selbstredend mitten hinein in der 90er jahre. Das Ergebnis ist fliessender Neo-Dub mit phantasievollen Effekten: es pliept und piept, es holtert und poltert, es quackert und zwitschert, dann wird's psychedelisch mit Hammond orgel, Synthie-Einlagen, Flote und Sitar. Dabei ist die Grundstimmung fast durchgehend mellow. Und damit wahlt Ryan Moore den goldenen Mittelweg im Dub. Sein Twilight Circus Dub Sound System stehlt irgendwo zwischen der duster-morbiden Herangehensweise der in diesem Heft zurecht abgefeierten WordSound-Posse aus New York und dem teilwiese zuckrigen Mainstream der britischen Dub-heroen Zion Train.

    Albert Koch - MUZIK EXPRESS SOUNDS (Germany) April '98 rating: 4 stars



    Canadian-born, Amsterdam-based echo affectionado Ryan Moore apparently made a name for himself twiddling knobs with the Tear Garden and Legendary Pink Dots, but you'd never know it listening to the Kingston-schooled dub of his Twilight Circus Sound System. No watered-down quasi-industrial effects here. Instead, Moore's riddims are refreshingly authentic and expansive, more Prince Jammy than Portishead. Sternum-rattling bass sets the feel on these Jah Shaka-approved dub plates, with the basic beat rinsed out with drifting guitar, interstellar effects and the odd guest shot by roots rhythm master Sly Dunbar. Order your own via www.bsg-inc.com/twilight/.

    Matt Galloway - NOW ( Toronto ) Feb 19-25 '98 rating: 4 "n's"



    Stijloefening van doe-het-zelver Ryan Moore. Voor echt dubfanaten moet 'Dub Plate Selection' totnogtoe het hoogtepunt uit de carriere van Twilight Circus (sinds kort aangevuld met) Dub Sound Circus worden. Mixes, remixes, en opnieuw dub-mixes van Ryans lievelingtracks totnogtoe. Voeg dit alles mooi bij elkaar en je krijgt een spikssplinternieuw album. Afwisselend, scherp, maar vooral boordevol dub-effecten gegooid. Een prima shotel die zelfs reeds op het menu van sound-system-koning Jah Shaka pronkte.

    Stijn Lauwers - GONZO CIRCUS ( Belgium) April '98



    Ringleader Clowns Around in Trance-Inducing Circus
    By Alexander Varty

    It was a special kind of day at last summer's Vancouver Folk Music Festival; with nary a cloud in the sky and the sun glinting off the gently lapping waters of English Bay, we lay in the dappled shade of a young oak tree and listened with a kind of bemused wonder at the sounds rolling off Stage 5. These were no ordinary folk-festival noises, no plangent guitars or tinkling ethnic strings; instead, from the speakers swelled the deep, booming bass and clattering, echo-enhanced drums of the Twilight Circus Dub Soundsystem, topped off with the extemporaneous vocal ravings of local hereos Kinnie Starr and Tippy Agogo.

    The music perfectly mirrored the afternoon heat. Even the ducks seemed entranced, quacking in time to the reggae pulse. This was true ambient music, infiltrating the soundscape with inexorable perfection.

    "That was pretty special, that show, what with the special duck-rap performer and all the guests who came to help," says Twilight Circus mastermind Ryan Moore, his laugh reflecting the glow of that months-old event. But, speaking from a Dallas, Texas hotel, he's quick to explain that the Soundsystem you'll hear in the artificial gloaming of the Starfish Room on Sunday (September 14) will offer a somewhat less bucolic experience. "That was the family show you saw," he stresses, adding: "Since then it's been expanded somewhat, to include sort of surreal ad-libbing and sonic improvs and marital aids. It gets quite over-the-top sometimes. I like to clown around, and Twilight Circus has sort of evolved into this perfect platform for me to behave really silly and do crazy antics."

    Moore now resides in Holland, where he plays bass with the Legendary Pink Dots (who will also appear at the Starfish Room), but he hails from Vancouver, where he used to perform with Copyright and the Animal Slaves, among other local outfits. It was here, too, that he first came into contact with dub, the stripped-down, spaced-out reggae offshoot that is now his primary musical concern. He notes that dub is "the most ultimate form of drum 'n' bass music you can imagine", because in its simplest form that's about all there is to it, other than electronic processing. He also admits that the music offers him a way to unite all the sides of his musical persona: besides being a bit of a clown, he's an exceptionally propulsive bassist and a strong, funky drummer.

    "And, as well, I'm fascinated by the character of tape echos and delays and cavernous reverbs," he adds. "That's an aesthetic that really appeals to me, in fact -I genuinely enjoy the sounds of those old tape delays. I have quite a collection of them now that I use to colour up the sound. All these classic old units that each have their own character."

    Moore uses his Maestro Echoplexes, Roland Space Echos, and WEM Copicats to good effect on Twilight Circus' two CDs, In Dub Vl. 1 and Other Worlds of Dub. The music is rich and exotic, sometimes swinging away from its Jamiacan roots toward Middle Eastern, South Asian, or spaghetti-western sonorities but always underpinned by a steady, trance-inducing bass 'n' drum foundation. He's not a slave to old technolgy onstage, however -the touring Circus is a two-man act, with Moore playing along to recorded DAT tapes and sampled sound effects mixed by Pink Dots soundman Raymond Steeg.

    "What interests me about dub is that I can make a rhythm grooves that are hypnotic and that will hopefully have some sort of trancelike effect on the listener, and then I can put more high-frequency sounds and spacy noises over top of that to kind of affect the mind," he explains.

    His interest in taking the listener on a trip -which he shares with the rest of the Pink Dots -extends to Sunday's show. "People are in need of having a good time, and when they go out to see bands they should get more of a sense of having had an experience," he says. "So we're doing a package tour: we'll go on first, and then the keyboard player in the Pink Dots, whose name is the Silverman, will be doing improvised ambient music as sort of a segue between the colon-loosening bass sub-frequencies of the Twilight Circus and the Legendary Pink Dots. It's quite a nice package, I think.

    "We're on a mission to relax people," he adds, before cautioning that not all of the evening's entertainment will be easy to listen to. "It's kind of like a yin-yang thing," he concludes. "Everything is in equal doses, 'cause it can get quite spooky and heavy. But at least people will be having the sense of having some kind of experience."