ON SATURDAY 18 January, the Dub Valle HiFi crew brought a famed dub selctor/DJ to Granada, as part of their annual birthday celebration. Warming the deep midwinter with music and dance, the event coincided with Spain’s lively San Anton fiesta weekend, known for fires and frivolity.
After all, local people had enjoyed 12 days’ rest after the Three Kings celebration, which is enough in party-loving Andalucia! Time for the next round!
Birthday bash with Bukkha
Birthdays need special guests and Dub Valle had lined one up, and were delighted to host him. Bukkha is a well-known producer and DJ/selector who hails from Everglades in the the US. Ten years ago, he moved to Valladolid – initially to follow romantic interests. He then immersed himself in the Spanish dub scene. He is an experienced selector, well known by fans of dub music.
On the San Anton weekend, he hopped to Granada to join the Dub Valle crew of Phil Vega, Daniel Dobson, and Ras John – all celebrating their birthdays, as was the reporter.
A limited capacity event for 100 people was held in a private, indoor (thankfully) venue near Granada. Despite near-zero temperatures, it attracted dub aficionados from far and wide. It never ceases to amaze how far people will travel. One man had walked for an hour in the freezing cold – he was determined to make the 10pm opening time, rather than wating for a lift.
Bukkha’s history
A second-time visitor to Granada, Bukkha started with music aged 11, when he played guitar. His early influences included jungle and even Radiohead, as well as records from charity shops. He became interested in dubstep around 2008, after hearing the 2006 ‘BBC Radio Dubstep Wars‘ mix. “The mix changed my life – I wanted to investigate where they got the samples and a lot of it was from Jamaica. I got into the dubbier side of dubstep. I tried to go back to the roots.” He was serious about dub after this time.
He now runs two record labels, as well as producing music, and playing at events – including festivals.
He points out that drum and bass and reggaeton are huge in Spain, dubstep is largely a UK thing, whereas bass music is loved in Chicago. People’s music genre choice can be “tribal”, he says. Music has become a “melting pot”.
Wide influences in the tunes
At the Dub Valle party, Bukkha was an audience-pleaser who quickly got the crowd going. For a long stretch, he was playing dub records he produced himself . These had diverse influences – including house, trip hop (or was it West Coast), bass music, and oldskool. At one point, he suddenly threw into the mix the drum n bass classic, ‘Tarantula’ by Pendulum. “That’s a pleasant surprise”, said a drum and bass DJ hailing from Málaga. Phil Vega just looked surprised!
From the reporter’s point of view, this influence-melding was slightly different to hearing pure dub/reggae selectors, and kept people on their toes. However, the reporter is not a connoisseur! This led to posing the ignorant question, “where are the hog scoops” (a type of special bass bin for dub music – one reveller briefly had their head in it). The faux pas was exceeded by dancing with a ‘Dub Valle’ entry stamp on the forehead, then suggesting that people were “staring”, as well as stomping on someone’s foot. Elegance is not a requirement for dub (allegedly) – fortunately, it’s not ballet dance!
An established and vibing crew
Bukkha was not the only star of the show. Entertaining on the mixer and the mic were the usual crew members of Ras John, Jotastep – who travelled down from Valencia to join the crew – Phil Vega, Daniel Dobson, and Rowan Napper “spitting some bars”. Accompanying them were Ital:Gen and Dub Cousin of Badawi soundsystem, from Almeria.
By about 2am, the venue was so lively that moisture was dripping from the ceiling of the petite chill out area / ‘green room’ upstairs. Revellers had to take care it didn’t get into their refreshments. All part of the fun! And what an amusing night it was, from start to finish.
The dub crew vibing together is exactly the type of ‘Club Hombre’ (Man Club) that is welcome in rural Granada, and not a macho element in sight!
More coming up…
Daniel Dobson, co-owner and events manager at Dub Valle HiFi says: “I was celebrating my 37th birthday and it was an honour to have a producer/selector like Bukkha come and celebrate with me, and amazing to see the amount of crowd that came out. We’re looking forward to the next one on 31 May which will be Dub Valle HiFi’s 22nd anniversary at the Cento Eco Natural at Los Guajares.”
Don’t miss out.