Following the success of the Dub Invasion Festival, we’re teaming up with Hong Kong based Hidden Dragon to forward the Dub and Sound System movement in Asia by co producing four shows headlined by MC sensation Brother Culture. BC is undoubtedly one of the most prolific MC/vocalist on the scene at the moment and has collaborated with a diverse range of producers including Manasseh, Mungo’s HiFi, Kinyama sound and the Prodigy just to name a few.

In case you missed it, he put on a fiery performance alongside Adrian Sherwood at last year’s Dub Invasion. For this four dates, he’ll be backed by non other than SLF’s own DJ Q-Mastah.

Here are the Details for the shows:

Saturday 02/11: Hong Kong @ Backstage Live (+ Link to Facebook Event)

Sunday 02/12: Manila, Phillipines @ B-Side Club (+ Link to Facebook Event)

Thursday 02/16: New Dehli, India @ TLR Cafe (+ Link to Facebook Event)

Saturday 02/18: Mumbai, India @ Bonobo (+ Link to Facebook Event)

Here is the tour promo video including some footage from Dub Invasion:

If you were at the epic SLF New Years’ Eve party last year, you know that the best way to escape the typical NYE brouhaha is a good old-fashioned loft party! This year, we’re ringing in the new year with an incredible live band feat. Treasure Don (mashup of Brooklyn faves Peoples Champ’s and Super Hi-Fi) and an eclectic crew of DJs spinning the jams all night long.

Please send an email RSVP to rsvp@soundliberation.org for the location.

9PM-Early 2012
$15 at the door (with free champagne toast!)
Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

The SLF crew and Subatomic Sound are proud to announce the first annual Dub Invasion Festival with Lee “Scratch” Perry, Mad Professor, Adrian Sherwood, Twilight Circus Dub, and more! Festival partners include Dubspot, Wax Poetics, Brooklyn Radio, Turntables on the Hudson, Liondub International, Deep Space, Deadly Dragon, Universal Sundays and Restless Native.

Along with some amazing musical performances during the 10-day festival, we’ll be presenting documentary film screenings, a UK dub photo exhibit, and dub masterclasses at Dubspot with Mad Professor, Adrian Sherwood, and Clive Chin of VP Records.

For more info and the full schedule, please check out the festival website www.dubinvasion.net.

In case you didn’t already know, the next edition of our coney island reggae beach party is happening in a few weeks on Sunday August 14th. For those of you who missed the first one, here is a little video recap to give you an idea of how awesome the vibes was. We’re looking forward to see you all on the 14th (and don’t forget the sunscreen this time!)

Also, Please remember that this is a free event and that we need your support to cover our production costs. If you like what we do, please consider donating to our campaign:

KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN – PLEASE DONATE!

Click here for the full picture set.

If you missed the prince of afrobeat at Prospect Park this past weekend, you can catch him with Egypt 80 at SOB’s this Wednesday, July 27th. A HIGHLY recommended show!

WKCR’s Eastern Standard Time and the Sound Liberation Front have joined forces again to present the 2011 season of the Coney Island Reggae Beach Party series, bringing the enormously influential culture of Jamaican sound systems back to the Coney Island Boardwalk on Sunday, July 17.

Building on the success of last year’s inaugural season, the free events will begin at 2 p.m. and last until sunset, and will feature live DJs, special guest artists, and fun activities for the whole family. This year the parties will take place at a new location directly on the beach at W. 19th Street (near the iconic red tower).

Each event will feature an all-star lineup of music selectors and guest vocalists curated by WKCR host Carter Van Pelt. Some notable talents who performed at last year’s events include dancehall legends Johnny Osbourne, Carlton Livingston, and Mikey Jarrett; seminal NYC sound system Sir Tommy’s; and, legendary record producer Clive Chin.

The final Coney Island Reggae Beach Party of the season will be at the same location on Sunday, August 14th.

Check out videos and photos from last season. This time around we’re setting up the sound system right on the beach for even more good vibes, so don’t miss out!

This Saturday, we are co sponsoring the release party of Subatomic Sound’s latest release: Vampires & Informers. You’ve heard the buzz about the record so make sure you come support our good friend Emch and check out this amazing lineup of international bass specialists.

It’s free too so no excuse!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110102212405042

FREE BEFORE MIDNIGHT with RSVP at http://www.SubatomicSound.com/

Ming (of MING & FS)
Liondub (LIONDUB INTL, HALCYON)
Emch (of SUBATOMIC SOUND SYSTEM)
Paul Zasky (of DUBBLESTANDART) out of Vienna
Chicus (REDBUD RECORDINGS)

PLUS special guests, video, & dance performance from Stand Up Hungry dance crew!

The release is blowing up: #5 on Juno (#1 in reggae), Top 40 on Beatport reggae, and the vinyl hit #1 on Ernie B!

“Breaking serious ground in Jamaican music.” – MTV
“Another heavyweight release in a relentless schedule from Subatomic Sound!” – Generation Bass
“The mixtape king and Jamaican dancehall superstar examines the underworld on his latest” – AOL Music

NYC label Subatomic Sound label presents “Vampires & Informers” a bass fueled dance party celebrating the crazy new the vinyl and re-upped digital release of an electronic album of the same name by dancehall reggae star Elephant Man with beats by Subatomic Sound System, Stereotyp, Dubblestandart, Ming, Liondub, David Last, Kush Arora, & Taal Mala. The party featues DJ sets by the album’s producers from the U.S. and Europe, a night of forward, heavy bass, dancefloor sounds: dub, dubstep, dancehall, electro, jungle, uk steppers, funky, bassline, and beyond.

Sponsors: Konkrete Jungle, Brooklyn Radio, Permanent Damage, & SLF

Juno Download http://bit.ly/jnEle2
iTunes http://bit.ly/it2ele
Beatport http://bit.ly/elebtp

So maybe we’ll just stay home on new year’s eve from now on. Of course, staying home isn’t the old pot of tea and Twilight Zone reruns that it might sound like, not when you live in Ezra and Brent’s house and the Sound Liberation Front throws a raging party in your living room with 100 or so of your newest and dearest friends, all of whom act like saving the planet is easy if we just shake it a little bit more, a little bit longer.

For real- overpriced cocktails and cover charges and bad music and craning your neck to see what’s past the velvet rope is so 2010. So we’re gonna do it just like we did this time from now on. Meaning we’re gonna freak out and drive all over town all day picking up equipment and booze, we’re gonna string christmas lights and plug in amplifiers and turntables and build a bar out of milk crates, and then we’re gonna sit back and watch the evening unfold about as close to perfect as you’re allowed to get.

Hopefully it’s always like this- with Brent Arnold starting us all off with his gorgeous looping cello (seriously, you’ve got to check this guy out- http://audiofriction.com/), and DJ ‘lil Tiger and Q-Mastah spinning us right into the new year on just the right note. We hope Treasure Don is always there too, toasting on the mic while a ragtag band of SLF all-stars- Ezra on bass, Linh on keys, Brent on guitar and Quinn on drums- rocks behind him. We made a new friend in DJ B from San Francisco, and Planet Rump’s set of funky electro, I mean…damn- we already knew we had a crush on these guys, like you have a crush on the new kid in school with the funky new haircut, but it turns out this new kid rocks vintage electro beats like your grandma rocks strawberry rhubarb pie, and looks damn sexy in skintight silver too. We’re in love. After that, somehow, it just got better, with a special treat of a set from none other than dj/rupture. By the time Trainwreck hit the decks the sun wasn’t far off and things were shading toward the blurry side, but what a way to end the night (and the year, and the decade…).

So yeah, you have to spend a few days cleaning your living room when you invite the world over instead of going out to meet it on New Year’s, but with a crew like this we wouldn’t have it any other way. Thanks to all who came and made it epic, we’ll see you soon…

So, we just have one question- is Coney Island always this awesome?? Because if it is, we need to re-think our entertainment routines, re-orient ourselves south, trade trendy Williamsburg clubs for sun-soaked slices of Brooklyn boardwalk Americana, overpriced Lower East Side cocktails for cold Coronas bought out of some dude’s shopping cart on a Coney fishing pier. Sure, maybe it was a fluke, maybe this was a one-time event, maybe Sound Liberation Front and Eastern Standard Time hauled racks of speakers, a sound system, coolerfuls of refreshments and the best reggae selectors you could ask for into the one perfect summer afternoon on the Brooklyn beach, when everything was perfectly aligned. We don’t know. All we do know is if we can help it, we are never, ever going to miss an afternoon like that again.

Like the best parties, it’s all a little blurry, to be honest. Some of us got up early and packed a van full of equipment and drove out to the beach. Others of us biked out to Coney Island and arrived around 3, party in full swing, fixing ourselves rum and cokes and boogying down on the boardwalk in the perfect summer sun while the iconic Coney Island parachute tower loomed over us. Once the sound system was finally strung up, Carter Van Pelt from WKCR had things on full boil from the get go, a mixed crowd of reggae heads and curious Coney beachwalkers mingling in front of the decks on the boardwalk. A couple hundred yards down the boardwalk a Puerto Rican party raged on with a live bachata band and a crowd full of salsa dancers. A couple hundred yards the other direction some guy played Beatles songs on drums and guitar at the same time, and was actually, kinda, well, really good at it. We wandered back to the party to find a growing crowd dancing. Throughout the afternoon, a rotation of selectors including Hahn Solo, Vaughn All Star, Nick Solid Rock and Sir Tommy’s rocked the decks alternating rocksteady classics, vintage reggae and wicked foundation cuts.

Some of us wandered a little ways off to the fishing pier, watching some kid reel in a flounder and then lose it at the last second, while a crowd threw money down for a dice game on the planks and we bought beers off a shopping cart. Some of us met cute boys from California and rode the ferris wheel. Back at the party, the Rub a Dub session was kicking into full gear. In a traditional Jamaican sound system fashion, a succession of artists were throwing it down in the gathering darkness, displaying their skills over a series of classic riddims while the growing crowd edged around them. The standout moment of the evening came when Johnny Osbourne unleashed his “Buddy Bye” anthem on the infamous sleng teng riddim followed by Carlton Livingtson performing “Please Mr DJ” which had the crowd going wild.

Yeah, the power went out at one point. And yeah, some of the old school heads wanted more juice from our generator so they could really drive that bass…although truth be told there was no getting away from that bass no matter how far up the boardwalk you walked (thank God).

And then, with the sunlight gone, it was over, and we loaded our speakers and tables and cooler back in the van, scarfed down one more Nathan’s hot dog, and drove back home, back to the city, but still in Brooklyn, because we never left.

Click here for the full picture set.

A few days ago, the singer, producer, label-owner and sound-system operator Lincoln “Sugar” Minott passed away at the age of 54. When I heard this news it truly left me with a pit of sadness deep in my stomach — a feeling of loss, as if the world was simply not as good as it was in the minutes before Sugar passed away. This was a different feeling for me as when, say, Alton Ellis passed away. With Alton, my sadness was based in losing an artist, a vocalist, someone with a unique tone. With Sugar passing, I felt like an ethic has gone, a spirit, a morality — something beyond just a sweet voice singing timeless songs.

True, Sugar had a great voice and has a catalog of tunes that will always have a place in my box, but my admiration for Sugar went way beyond the music. First off Sugar holds the history of Jamaican music inside him — he started in the late 60s, worked with Coxsone Dodd and took those lessons of the 60s and 70s and seamlessly brought them into the Dancehall through his forays into Lover’s Rock, rub a dub, digital and beyond.

But more than all of that, Sugar was a true champion of the ghetto — a stone-cold believer in the power to uplift the people around him. He simply did not stop — in the 80s he formed the Black Roots Label and Youthman Promotion and reached out to his community and brought up the youth around him to grab a mic and deejay and sing and express themselves….and what expressions!!!! Little John, Tenor Saw, Junior Reid, Sinbad, Nitty Gritty, Garnett Silk!!!! And that is just the beginning!!! And when I say he did not stop, he didn’t…right up until he passed he was ALWAYS involved with music, ALWAYS in studios working with young artists and producers and sound men and anyone at all who loved the music. From all that I can gather, he was the type of person that would get paid for something and take that cash and immediately flip it into pressing some tunes, getting studio time, something to uplift the people around him….And the point of this is that Sugar was not doing this for any holier than thou reasons — he wasn’t a social worker! — but because it is because he loved it, because he thought it was great fun to be involved in music every day!! He loved to sing, to perform, to be around people who loved music — this was JOY to him. He sang about suffering, but having the ability to express sufferation, gave the man JOY!!!! And when you were around him or saw him perform, you felt that joy. And what a loss!!! Who else is stepping up to the plate anymore with JOY in their heart for music? Can you imagine Sugar Minott saying he was cross, angry, miserable because he got to make money by singing songs and playing music rather than by digging a ditch or working at a bank????? NOT A CHANCE!!

So….what can I say? I am going to mourn Sugar’s passing. And in honor to him, to his spirit, my mourning is going to take the form of making absolutely sure that I remember just how lucky I am that my life is surrounded by music, by people who love that music and share that passion with me. Bless…..To the memory of Sugar!!!