We all know the story of Cuba and it's famous leader Fidel Castro. We also know that with a government regime like that of Cuba music can be one of the biggest enemies of the state. Music lets people express their views and feelings without even having to say a word, sometimes all you need is the beat to feel the emotion and feelings the artist is trying to convey. This is very true in the released work from Dub Sonata who released Nights in Cuba last year and some of you may have heard it being played around my apartment, but I wanted to share the story of this amazing music.
Castro is well aware of the power of music and with the rise of the Cuban hip-hop industry the government established the Cuban Rap Agency to try and control the culture on the rise. The agency provides artist with a record label and resources as long as the don't speak out against the government.
Well here we know how that you all like the rebel type of music and the music that goes outside the system and with Dub Sonata that is what we have. The story of the album is one of the most interesting that has been heard in a very long time. Dub is from New York City and one day he got a call from his friend in the Cayman Islands saying that he can get to Cuba from where he was staying. The next day Dub was in the Cayman Islands and two days later with no tour guide or reservations he is in Cuba. As fate would have it he meets a musician there who shows him around and takes him to shady variety store. This is where Dub stumbles across around 3000 badly mistreated records. After two days of searching through the dusty records he takes 70 of them with out even listening to them and ships them back to the States. That is what I call digging deep for inspiration.
When he got back to NYC the trip that had no plan continued to develop. He took the music back to his MPC (music production center) and sampling began. Drums, bass, that gritty NYC feel, and samples started to come together. With these in hand he took them to other musicians and the classic MPC tracks went on to full blown productions. Productions with flutes, grand pianos, scratches, percussion, and trumpets and with it Nights in Cuba is born.
What makes this album great is the story and the passion it took just to make something so diverse. Cuban music is an amazing style of music because it blends European and African influences. Cuban music is easily the most recognizable world music and I would dare say it is the most popular one too. And what is beautiful about this album is that it is all just pure music. There are no cheap tricks in here to keep you hooked that isn't needed. There are no catchy choruses in the songs that are fillers to keep you in, no this is pure instrumentals. This album is beautiful because it is real, it makes you feel a wide range of emotions from wanting to move your hips, to feeling the anger that is held in by years of repression in the music of Cubans like in the song Chess.
I love the 53 second long one more time which leaves you wanting more by the end of it. Another great song from the album is Que Lastima which starts out with a beautiful dirty Cuban introduction and then suddenly switches to the banging hip-hop beat then ends by sliding back into a Cuban style of feel. Its a song that really lets you get a feel for the album. The album has the feel of being played in some underground night club you found while wondering the street at 5 am in a foreign country. It screams that underground dirty vibe that makes this music so beautiful. It embraces everything it can and spits it back out in a fashion that makes you want to dance the night away and maybe even do a little salsa.
Hope you enjoy the music and to find more here is the website for Dub Sonata you can find the whole album on Itunes for 10 dollars and in a time when good music is hard to come by and cds are usually 15 dollars or more this is a great deal for a great album with an amazing story, so support the little man and help promote the up and comers. Much love y'all enjoy!
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