By Keith Walsh
It’s time to do the Jingle Bell Rock, rasta style. Black Market Dub just released their stellar set of Christmas classics. A Black Market Christmas is a stunning 8 song set of standards, the first four are 20th century tunes and the second four from the 1800s. All of them have been reimagined in the most inspired ways, featuring the talents of producer Nate Bridges (guitar,keys) Brandon Niznik (bass, guitar, keys) Dub Robot (sax) and John Roy (sax). Drums were appropriated from UK legend Winston “Horseman” Williams. Bridges selected the first four tunes, Niznik, aka Wise Owl selected the second four tunes.
When I say this set is inspired, I mean I features fantastic instrumental performances and production, with the songs’ melodies taken over by sax, guitar and keys. Then there’s Bridges’ expert mixing. All of these guys are deep reggae fans and players, and it shows in the dynamics of their chops. I hear everything from Bob Marley to the The Specials and The English Beat, to Toots and The Maytals here, but they bring these flavors into their singularly unique rasta sound. The result is a sweet nostalgic vibe that’s refreshingly new. For now there’s eight songs, and when the vinyl is released next year there will be added tracks.
The artwork is by Anthony Carranza of Shape Comics, depicting the famous Dub Robot vehicle, Santa and his reindeer.
I had the chance to speak with Nate Bridges about the production.
Nate Bridges: We’re developing a brand new Christmas album called A Black Market Christmas, featuring all new covers of classic Christmas songs. The concept was to have five songs inspired by classic Christmas songs from the 1950s/1960s, and five songs inspired by the more religious traditional songs from the 1800s. The first set was arranged by me with Brandon Niznik playing a support role, and the second side was arranged by Brandon with me playing a support role. All the songs feature Brian Wallace (aka Dub Robot) on sax playing all the melodies, with guest appearances from John Roy of Smoke and Mirrors Soundsystem on saxes as well. Side A is “Christmas Eve” and it’s kind of an upbeat party, and Side B is “Christmas Morning” so it’s more downtempo, and somber. The plan is to release 8 songs digitally this year on Bandcamp in time for Christmas and then we’ll be launching some kind of campaign to get it pressed to vinyl with an expanded 10-song tracklist in time for next Christmas. It’s a really crazy album and it’s taking us forever to finish but we’re determined to get it out this year with vinyl on the way.
PopularCultureBeat: What new gear comes into play on this set?
Nate Bridges: Not a ton of new gear, but two new pieces that are pretty indispensable in my arsenal going forward. The first is called “The Dub Siren” by Rad Sauce Electronics based out of Austin, Texas. This unit is essentially replacing my Roland PC-2 Perc Synthesizer and is something I’ll incorporate on the fly during live dub mixing. It’s a beautiful piece, handcrafted, well-made, and incredibly fun to play with. The other is my brand new Audioscape Bus Compressor. This unit is a direct reproduction of the old SSL bus compressors that are so famous around the world. Audioscape is a company based out of Florida that makes incredible reproductions of vintage gear by hand in small batches. I feel super lucky to have gotten my hands on one! It adds very subtle glue to my mixes and just makes everything sound that much closer to being finished while I’m working.
PopularCultureBeat: I’m happy to find that Wise Owl is playing a big role here.
Nate Bridges: Brandon (aka Wise Owl) is officially a part of Black Market now. He’s as crucial to all the music we are making as I am and on this new Christmas album he has taken on a bigger workload than anyone ever has for a Black Market release. He and I have a second hand between each other that I couldn’t put a price on, and he compliments everything I do in a way that really elevates these albums to a standard I absolutely couldn’t reach on my own. Plus his musical knowledge of dub, reggae, and all kinds of styles makes me a better musician and producer. Definitely look forward to him becoming a bigger and bigger part of Black Market Dub going forward.
High Noon Audio
Black Market Dub On Bandcamp
Black Market Dub On Patreon
Wise Owl On Bandcamp
Dub Robot Dot Com
Smoke And Mirrors Soundsystem
Anthony Carranza On Instagram
Black Market Dub Remixes David Bowie
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