Canada's Solar Phenomena presents three DJ Sotofett remixes of Tokyo producer Mystica Tribe. With a unique and unpredictable approach, Norwegian DJ Sotofett who runs Sex Tags Mania, Amfibia and Wania opens the remix EP with "Ash of Dub Mix", and as the names suggests, a fat dub with huge rubbery kicks, oodles of echoing hits and a spaced out curiousness that sonically draws inwards. "Dub Lawn Dub" eight minutes strips it back with a meandering top line, whimsical, dreamy and encouraging synths contrasting the rickety drums tumbling below. Lastly, "Dub'right Mix" continues the producer trademark loose limbed and jumbled drums, working into a lather while synths squelches and wobbled pads parallely prospects other dimensions. Heavy deepness with percussive highlights.

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Solar Phenomena continues a high quality and high rate of releases after EP's from the likes of STL and Fluxion with a new one from Mystica Tribe - the musical alias of Tokyo-based producer, Taka Noda. Here he draws on everything from dub, soul, bass music, rhythm and blues and will always freak you out with his unusual sounds.
This excellently absorbing EP starts with Love Is All Right, a fusion of Asian percussion and reggae drums that is high tempo and funky. The bright steelpan sounds offset the razor sharp percussion and make for a sunny dub that will get any crowd going. The same fusion vibes continues but in more blissed out and slow motion fashion on 'Lawn Track', the beautiful cosmic psyche-out that is 'Ash' and supple space journey that is 'Voyage' with its intoxicating melodies and loose, tumbling percussion. This is unusual but essential music from an exclusive talent.

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Second of two new bass-infected dub EP's with a hint of techno by the Japanese Mystica Tribe. Titletrack ''Stars Are Mine'' and ''His Temple'' immediately set off to deep dub and bass territories in these two typical Mystica Tribe excursions: grooving, but dark with lots of effects and tribal influences. ''Prayer'' evolves around a catchy melodica that won't leave your head for days or maybe even weeks and ''Zen Stone'' tops it off perfectly with this gloomy scifi dubtrip.

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First of two new bassheavy techno-ish dub EP's by Mystica Tribe. Four tracks of excellent electronic dub with heavy techno and acid influences. Although only his second release after his debut in 2011 with ''Meditation Stick'' the Japanese Mystica Tribe already delivers a powerful trademark sound: loose, shuffling beats, layered with heavy basses, tribal percussion and trippy elements, like the dark acid tale on titletrack ''Flowers'' and the classic melodica stabs on ''Fractale'' and ''Moon & Stone''. Tokyo Dub at it's best.



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The ZamZam Sounds screen printed 7” vinyl journey concludes with a massive double pack link-up from Bristol legends Dubkasm & Gorgon Sound, not heard together on vinyl since Peng! Sound 12”s back in 2013 and 2018. ZamZam’s love for Bristol’s musical vibes and sound system culture and history is well-established, since kicking off the label with Henry & Louis ft. Prince Green’s “Every Time” in 2012. It’s only fitting that the series concludes in Portland’s sister city; but while ZamZam 01 was an unreleased deep cut from the 90s, the 99-100 double pack is a fully up to the minute dispatch.

The set starts off with Dubkasm’s “The Return,” a heavy stepper in the duo’s brutal yet lush style; fleeting melodica and ephemeral flute float over a bed of heavy bassline and tough percussion. Alive with the sounds of nature, shot through with laser and siren, Dubkasm’s desk-as-instrument ethos is on full display with raw dubbing galore. Gorgon Sound’s remix ramps up the intensity with a lean, muscular, synth-driven rebuild that’s already proved to be a guaranteed rewind anywhere it’s played.

Gorgon Sound’s “Born Under Siege” is purest Gorgon while feeling like a new evolution in the pair’s unmistakable sound. Crystalline synthetic horns and strings interlace in a gorgeous melodic dance with buzzing mid-range synths and lacerating percussion over a dark martial riddim that’s both fully steppers and unlike anything we’ve heard in the idiom. Dubkasm’s crucial remix is thick, baroque and bombastic, a dubwise hall of mirrors and echoes that wrings every last drop of dub from the original.

Pressed with each version on the B side of the opposite 7” for playing showcase style, ZamZam 99-100 are housed in a single full color offset-printed, double-die cut gatefold jacket with additional silver screen print. Limited to 1000 copies for the world. There won’t be a repress, so grab the last chapter of the label’s legendary run where you find one. Keep following the ZamZam socials- there’s more to come.

Strictly limited to 1000 copies for the world - no digital, no repress. Art, design & screen print on top of offset print by Polygon Press. Mastered by Sam at Precise, pressed at Cascade Record Pressing. Shipping late September, 2025.

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It says a lot about the interconnectedness of the global dubwise underground that it took downtime with Bristolian Neek in Portland to spur the link between ZamZam and Feel Free Hi Fi out of the Minneapolis Twin Cities. Once he put us on to them we were hooked- not only by their brilliant music but by their rigorously DIY approach and aesthetic. Heavily inspired by the more esoteric angles of early digi-era JA dancehall and UK dub (Shaka, Disciples, Mixman and Gussie P being some touchstones) the duo create a sound both reverential and unique, steeped in the traditions but striking out hard left into idiosyncratic territory all their own. Releasing all of their works up to this point on their own fantastic Digital Sting label, we’re excited to showcase them on ZamZam.

In “Voyageur” an ominous mid-range figure, heaving synth bass and complex intertwining melodies drive the tune into heavily cinematic territory, thick atmospherics and strange synthetic animal calls like a lost John Carpenter soundtrack-in-dub. The duo says, “Voyageur in its title speaks a bit to the mythic, mysterious, but also very real wild places of the North Country where we live... and how it all rubs up against the contemporary urban environment.”

“Underground”s opening stabs, bassline and drums could have time-travelled from Unity Sounds or Jammys, but bring an eerie darkness in their deployment that is unmistakably now. Feel Free Hi Fi explain, “Underground in its title is a tribute to the spirit of underground music, of the DIY non commercial ethos... So the tunes together kind of speak to time and change, and the struggle of what's going on now. Trying to preserve the environment and and also the wild places of basement and warehouse gigs, and the outsider mentality of underground music that also seems like it's fading away but hopefully isn't lost.”

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Few names shine as brightly in the cosmology of dubwise bass music as that of V.I.V.E.K. From releasing absolutely ground-breaking tracks for the better part of 20 years primarily on his own System and VIVEK imprints, to curating and hosting his legendary System nights, to bringing so much rising talent to light, it’s honestly difficult to imagine the last two decades of UK and global sound system music without him.

For ZamZam 96 V.I.V.E.K went straight to the bedrock of sound system music and delivered a power-stepper of galactic proportions.

“Illusions Dub” opens with starkly heavy valve bass and a punishing kick, leaving little doubt where this journey is headed . Richly adorned with neck-snapping percussion, industrial snares, post-punk atmospherics and a gorgeous melodic figure, the tune employs classic 90s digi-dub principles while feeling like a message from a gloriously human -or post-human- future.

“Illusions (Raw Dub)” runs rugged through the desk in fine style, with barely restrained feedback, phasers, and deep space echo and reverb ripping open shimmering holes in space-time for a truly cosmic Part 2.

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It’s always a joy to release music from friends, and ZamZam 91 is our first collab with a dear one, Jim Coles AKA Om Unit. It’s impossible to frame the breadth and depth of such a storied career in bass music in just a couple lines- so suffice to say that releases over decades on a who’s-who of seminal labels including Exit, Fabric, Planet Mu and of course his own Cosmic Bridge have cemented his rep as an absolute force in production and DJing across any number of genres and sub genres.

Coles’ roots in Bristol and deep love of dub and reggae - made beautifully explicit on his recent Acid Dub Studies LPs - come through strong on both sides. “The Canopy (Armageddon Style)” opens with ravey, arpeggiated synths worthy of Vangelis, punctuated by a brooding piano chord, building steadily into a dark and utterly apocalyptic steppers guaranteed to storm & batter down Babylon walls inside and out.

“Mystic 808” is a deep meditation, a slow stepper that ices down the furious energy of the A side and drops the tempo to suit. Recalling the heady days of original late 90s/early 2000s UK Dub - as well as early dub techno - stabs and melody caress, restrained percussion swims and multiplies in reverb and echo, orbits locked to the gravitational force of the massive and truly timeless bassline. Proper sound system material that will satisfy the heart and soul long after the dance is done.

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