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Marius Costache & Obeah - Illegal Zombie Transmission

Marius Costache & Obeah – Illegal Zombie Transmission

collage by Cristiana Bucureci

„Out here on the perimeter

Nobody can hear you scream

La-la-la-la la-la-la la-la

A dictator’s wet dream”

Mark Stewart

„Capital is an abstract parasite, an insatiable vampire and zombie maker; but the living flesh it converts into dead labor is ours, and the zombie it makes are us.”

Mark Fisher

“Another stunning release from The Sound of Art to Come, who are fast becoming one of the busiest labels around! Citizen Zombie is dark, brooding and drenched in Dub, from the heart of Transylvania to our hearts and ears via Bristol.”

Andy Ahmad-Cooke of Music Galaxy Radio

 „I am Zombi, Ceaucescu’s wet dream. From Bristol to Japan, London to Wroclaw to Transylvania. One of our favorite songs ever is the anti-consumerist anthem Citizen Zombie written by Mark Stewart of Bristolian damage crew The Pop Group and The Maffia.

So it was only natural we pay our Transylvanian voodoo dues to the originators – Audio Active for their Apollo Choco version with Adrian Sherwood at the Controls, The Pop Group with Paul Epworth at the Controls, and the culture clash of Ghetto Priest with Polish phenomenon Positive Thursdays in DUB with Rafal Konert at the Controls. Our version is an authorized remix of the latter with Marius Costache in top form transmitting from the Studio148 dimension. REST IN POWA Mark!”

Obeah

https://lilobeah.bandcamp.com/track/illegal-zombie-transmission

Marius Costache is a music artist, studio engineer and Bucharest-based music producer. His passion regarding sound transcends the modern thin line of musical genre and steps into the world where sonic laws are meant to be just an example, not a path.

He is Discordless, performs with Environments and Febra and from his Studio148 has produced, mixed and mastered ambient music, electronic, hip-hop, post-rock, noise, folk, classical, jazz, post-hardcore and Balinese sounds for bands like Goran Bregovic, Mytrip aka Angel Simitchiev, Valerinne, Cyberian, White Walls, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, EMIL, COMA and labels like his own 148, dunk!records and our Bulgarian neighbors AMEK.

Obeah is a musical disruptor & entrepreneur with a visual past in architecture, art & design. Sound of Art to Come Records is his Transylvanian platform & record label, where dub, industrial, post-punky reggae, hip-hop, electronic & experimental artists from all over the world are brought together. Sound of Art to Come have partnered with the UK-based NGO/ label from Lancashire – Wormhole World, to put out their artists catalog on CD in the UK & surrounding areas and connect their audience with dub, industrial, post-punky reggae, experimental music. In the Texas USA, the label has partnered with anarchist label eMERGENCY heARTS, with whom they share the same ethos and collaborate on remixes and industrial dub hiphop releases.

Inspired by his mentors, Rodion G.A. & Mark Stewart of The Pop Group & The Maffia, Obeah from Transylvania has tuned-in to another frequency, a sound called duppy dub world music. Obeah works with professionals in the music business, Bucharest-based producers Marius Costache of Studio148 & Petru Barladeanu of NineBarz and international veteran world music producers Tim Whelan & Hamid Mantu of Transglobal Underground and much-missed dub master Nick „Count” Dubulah of Dub Colossus. His remix work includes local artists, international sound clashers like Lee Scratch Perry & Dubokaj, Algiers & Zach de la Rocha, Dubmatix, Dub Pistols, Prince Fatty, Ghetto Priest, Transglobal Underground, Dub Colossus, The Membranes, Denise Sherwood, Yann Tiersen, Oigăn & Ana Ularu, Nico G & Kali & Shabbos Ranks.

Inspired by the strangest Romanian sounds, ranging from weird experimental authentic local dub to traditional reggae-dub with ska and folk-rock influences, music, and records released near the Black Sea from the 1960s to the present Obeah’s music was played all over the world by legends like Dennis Bovell, Steve Barker and Don Letts on: BBC 6 Music, BBC Lancashire, Soho Radio, ResonanceFM, The Music Galaxy Radio, Radio Buena Vida, Australia’s National Roots’n’Reggae Show, Culture Dub from Poitiers, Berlin’s Zonic Radio, Poland’s Czwórka and Belgium’s Dub Front.

https://soundofarttocome.bandcamp.com/music

Ghetto Priest aka Squidz is one of the most flamboyant, creative performers from the London music scene and like the community from which he hails, he is a man at ease with multiple musical visions. He is part of a community of exchange: African/Caribbean and Irish, Asian and English, each mixing and informing the other, lending beats and grooves, keeping things fresh and new. Born and raised in the east end of London to Afro-Caribbean parents, he has been making reggae, dub and experimental music for over three decades. He has been a mainstay of the On-U Sound Records, where he started out as backing vocalist and percussionist for the band African Head Charge.

Ghetto Priest released the critically acclaimed debut album Vulture Culture, produced by Adrian Sherwood and three tracks: “Rise Up”, “Masters Of Deception”, and “Visionary” were used on the soundtrack for the for the film Johnny Was. Ghetto Priest and Adrian Sherwood were called upon by renowned Scottish artist Graham Fagen to do a remake of the famous 17th century poet Robert Burns song “Slaves Lament”, to be used for the ‘Clean Hands, Pure Hearts’ art exhibition at the Glasgow Tramway. The result was also an appearance at the world renowned Venice Biennale.

Since 2004, Ghetto Priest is collaborating with Asian Dub Foundation. He is touring globally with ADF captivating audiences with his vocal and mystical stage presence. During the time of the invasion of Iraq, Asian Dub Foundation released an album titled TANK, with Ghetto Priest’s vocal & writing services is an integral part. Ghetto Priest latest album is the ‘Big People Music’ LP, the long awaited follow up to his 2017 album, ‘Every Man For Every Man’. The idea for this LP started under the title ‘Songs for my father’. From childhood memories of his father’s tunes being played on the family radiogram and additions from his youthful excursions, the album features versions from the greats: Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Slim Smith, Ken Boothe and Aaron Neville. The Bishop of Dub, Adrian Sherwood blessed the project with the title ‘Big People Music’, a powerful acknowledgement to those tunes which filled many a Caribbean household with immeasurable sentiments that echoed down through subsequent generations.

https://ramrock.bandcamp.com/album/rrlp002-ghetto-priest-big-people-music

Ghetto Priest teamed up last year with the Wrocław based band Positive Thursdays in DUB to record their version of a classic tune of Bristol finest post-punk band The Pop Group. The sharp anti-consumerist lyrics and message were penned by dada instigator Mark Stewart three decades ago and they are very actual in the present pandemic days. Ghetto Priest and Positive Thursdays have created the perfect protest song, a contemplation of a modern day’s society and its motto: “Have more, buy more, watch TV, don’t think, don’t ask questions, follow the rules!” How many times you hear those words in your life? The system programs society in this way. The world is full of misinformation and fake news and people are fed by commercials and fed by the hyper capitalism surrounding us in daily life. How many times did you wonder if you are surrounded zombies?

https://positivethursdaysindub.bandcamp.com/album/citizen-zombie

All the best from Transylvania

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