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Twilight Circus Dub Sound System


    " Volcanic Dub " Music Reviews

    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System "Volcanic Dub"
    (M Records, The Netherlands)

    Did you think Ryan Moore was going to return to Studio Twilight and make a bad record? If so, "Volcanic Dub" is going to burn a hole in your woofer cones as punishment. There are so few artists capable of making contemporary roots dub without lapsing into shiny, loungy digitalia or revivalism so contrived it's embarrassing. Before Moore's foray into dub, it was only Jah Shaka, Mad Professor, Smith & Mighty, and Doug Wardrop who kept the roots spirit alive. When Moore left the Legendary Pink Dots recently, it was to concentrate on his sublime dub. 'Floorshaker' opens with rippling, metallic horns stretched to the horizon by Moore's dazzling echo box. What he does with that instrument is wondrous, from flattening a snare like it was hit by a steamroller to pushing dripping melodica chords off the earth's edge. If you're even mildly interested in what good dub sounds like thirty years after King Tubby invented it at 18 Drummile Road in Kingston, this album is crucial. [TH]

    www.othermusic.com
    Thanks for reading.
    -all of us at Other Music
    Other Music NYC



    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
    "Volcanic Dub"
    (M Records/Fusion III)

    VOIR MONTREAL - 13 septembre 2001

    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System 'Volcanic Dub' (M Records/Fusion III) Amsterdam, la nouvelle Mecque du dub? Vous prendrez la question plus au sérieux après l'audition de cette neuvième galette de TCDSS: 12 plages instrumentales originales on ne peut plus orthodoxes, évoquant le son Tubbys. Joué, mixé, réalisé et produit par Ryan Moore, Volcanic Dub s'inscrit, à l'instar de formations comme Roots Combination ou Dubchek, dans une nouvelle tendance mondiale de "retour aux racines" avec de vrais instruments et des enregistrements analogiques, reproduisant les ambiances de la belle période des Roots Radics, Aggravators et autres Upsetters. Vraiment, Moore propose de quoi accrocher une nouvelle génération à ce schème musical des années 70 qui refuse de s'avouer désuet! Du sérieux, même pour les puristes! * * * * -Richard Lafrance


    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
    "Volcanic Dub"
    M Records CD 200 2001
    (41:40)

    And the good vibes flow on.  Ryan Moore's 8th full length album in just 6 years as Twilight Circus is the first to be released after a decade of service with The Legendary Pink Dots.  Departing their ranks this past March has left him fully committed to an unyielding dub vision/mission.  A dozen new tectonically titled dub plates, most in the short but sweet 3 minute range, come bubbling up from the studios in The Netherlands and Vancouver then on to the legendary mastering studios of Berlin (for the purists/completists, the album is also available on 180 gram vinyl - the good stuff).  Moore isn't re-writing the book here, he's just adding another chapter.  This is based upon the real deal:  classic '70s styled dub made of bass guitar, organ, drums, and echo chamber effects.  And it resonates better than ever, partly due to steadily improving production skills and partly due to pure creative juices.  Moore's exuberant stage persona comes through in the utter joy of all his churning, swirling, high energy grooves.  If there's one track that stands out though, it would have to be the mysteriously titled conclusion "Fams" as the uber-low end bass line somehow digs even deeper than everything that preceeded it.  Viva la dub!  I'm looking forward to seeing where Twilight Circus goes next ... more of the same?  Collaborators?  Vocalists?  I don't see how he could go wrong any which way he chooses ...

    Mark Weddle, Mark Weddle's CD Reviews



    VOLCANIC DUB
    Albert Koch - Musikexpress Sounds
    (***** 5 Stars)

    Das achte Album des Kanadisch-höllandischen Dubmeisters Ryan Moore. Der multiinstrumentalist, studiowizzard und Dubmeister Ryan Moore, der es sich 1995 zur Aufgabe gemacht hat unter dem Logo Twilight Circus Dub Sound System die Jamaikanische Urform des Remixes ins Hier und Jetzt zu befördern, kommt uns mit seinem mittlerweile achten Album. Moore hat sich weider einmal in seinem Studio in Nijmegen, Holland in Tiefen der Echokammer begeben und dabei ein paar gar wunderliche Sounds heraufgeholt. VOLCANIC DUB hat zwölf allerfeinste Dubplates die sich in ihrer wunderschönen Kargheit und den sparlich getsetzen Soundeffekten - mehrheitlich verhalite Mundharmonikas und Hammond-sounds - immer mehr vom Neo-Dub entfernen und stramm in Richtung King Tubby marschieren. Zwei Stücke,,Floorshaker'' und,,Fams'', sind mit King Jammy und Family Man zwei Altmeistern des Dub-Reggae gewidmet was als weiteres Indiz zu werten ist dass Moore back to the roots will. Ihm geht es primär um Drums und Bass, Erstere kommen mit bleischweren Rhythmen, letzterer tont so tief, dass die Magenwande wackeln *****



    VOLCANIC DUB
    Ron Nachmann - XLR8R

    Ryan Moore's ascendance to master European-based dub craftsman under the TC guise-well-documented via his seven albums in five years-continues unabated with this 12 track monster. While not busting down barriers like the previous album Horsie did, Volcanic Dub offers a thorough selection of TC main ingredients: loping, dramatic, minor-keyed basslines; tightly reverbed snares; chords skeet shoot through your frontal lobes; and an all-around goopy, flanger and delay soaked environment. Variety's never been a problem and still isn't: among spacy, rumbling epics like "Rolling Thunder" run dynamic chuggers like "Floorshaker". And as usual, Moore tosses in some unique touches, like the grounation break in "Lightning Strike" and the spare melodica accents of "Seismic". If ya don't know, start here and go backwards in the TC discography; if ya do, ya know what to expect. Either way, roll it and light it.



    TWILIGHT CIRCUS DUB SOUND SYSTEM
    Frosty - XLR8R (Interview)

    "Have you heard? A Canadian living in Amsterdam is making the heaviest original dub sounds on the planet!.. Twilight Circus is the top sound. As digital technologies increasingy compress soul into cold algorithms, Ryan Moore evolves in warm, analog purity. His nine albums are sound tools descended directly from dub royalty. King Tubby whispers from the afterlife and rises through the Twilight Notes."



    TWILIGHT CIRCUS DUB SOUND SYSTEM
    Brock Phillips - Mean Street (S.Cali's #1 Music Mag)

    "Ryan Moore is one of the few keeping the sound of modern dub alive.."



    TWILIGHT CIRCUS DUB SOUND SYSTEM
    Volcanic Dub
    M - Box 469 ,6500 AL Nijmegen
    Dub, Reggae

    Ryan Moore keeps coming forth with the best contemporary dub. Treading further along the path taken by 2000 's Dub Voyage, Volcanic Dub presents 12 new chapters. The vibe is even mellower than previously and it 's hard to imagine this music moving a large crowd, unless it 's on the dance floor in your mind. As with Dub Voyage, TC is definitely about distilling rather than reinventing dub. Moore 's songwriting and recording technique remains superior to anyone working in dub today; the musical content will offer you pleasure far beyond the dub treatments. But, of course, he continues to patch together a fierce array of echo. Moore has saved a specially garbled loop of tape for his space echo this time around, and you 'll feel like scratching yourself all over while listening to the grainy textures of "Spacehall." Special mention must be made of the closing track, "Fams" (after Family Man Barrett?), which achieves what Bill Laswell failed to do with on the Marley remix project Dreams of Freedom. Moore could have named it "Seeco," as he nails the Wailers' percussionist's distinctive style perfectly atop a one-drop rhythm that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Kaya. Another fine record that will sound just as good in 20 years as it does today.

    David Dacks - July 30th 2001
    Exclaim!



    Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
    VOLCANIC DUB CD/LP

    With Ryan Moore's eighth outing as his dub roots incarnation it seems like the separation from his industrial hardbeat post-punk past is complete:  he has now fully reversioned himself as dubmeister extraordinaire.  Thoughout this set there's a half expectation that vocals from the original recording will leak through, ghost-like, in the mix.  But these are all "new" rhythms masterminded by Moore, using the analogue and tube devices he has hunted down over the years to create the warm, deep tones that have all but disappeared with the dominance of digital technology.  These tracks have such a dymanic feel that its difficult to believe that their creator is the only musician involved.  Still working from dub's original framework (if not starting grid), and retaining the discipline of shorter timeframes, this is as good as newly-created dub gets these days.

    (Steve Barker, The Wire, June 2001)