2006 - HDBCD001 - BURIAL - BURIAL




This first album on Kode9’s Hyperdub label comes from the mysterious Burial. On this self-titled CD debut, Burial carves out a sound which sends the dormant slinky syncopations of uk garage, via radio interference, into a padded cell of cushioned, muffled bass, passing through the best of Pole’s Berlin crackle dub.

Burial explores a tangential, parallel dimension of the growing sound of dubstep. Burial’s parallel dimension sounds set in a near future South London underwater. You can never tell if the crackle is the burning static off pirate radio transmissions, or the tropical downpour of the submerged city outside the window. In their sometimes suffocating melancholy, most of these tracks seem to yearn for drowned lovers. The smouldering desire of ‘Distant Lights’ is cooled only by the percussive ice sharp slicing of blades and jets of hot air blowing from the bass. Listen also for a fleeting appearance from Hyperdub’s resident vocalist, the Spaceape unravelling his crypto- biography. In its loud quietness, Burial takes his kitchen crackle aesthetic neither from the digital glitch nor merely a nostalgia for vinyl’s materiality. Instead, as ‘Pirates’ suggests, Burial crackle mutates the tactile surplus value of pirate radio transmissions. Burial’s mix is haunted. Echoed voices breeze in and out, on road to another time. Pirate signal from other frequencies steams in, A tidal wave of noise submerging all but the crispest syncopations. The noise is not violent, but caressing, tickling, exciting the ends of your nerves. Seducing you in.

2007 - HDB006 - THE BUG feat. KILLA P & FLOW DAN - SKENG/SKENG (KODE9 RMX)



A exclusive sneak preview from The Bug’s devastating new album (due on Ninja Tune towards the end of this year). A fixture in sets by Kode9 & DMZ’s Loefah, ‘Skeng’ has been trashing danceflloors around the world for the last few months, with its militantly slow half-step and brick wall of bass. The track is ignited by the gunman comic genius of 2 members of East London’s prolific Roll Deep grime crew, Killa P. & Flow Dan whose low slung, rapid fire deliveries bull-doze all who stand in the way. On the flip, Kode9 drags the vocals into the video game arcade, adding spring to the step with his bouncy remix and more rewinds than your dead, dusty tape deck.

2007 - HDB005 - LV feat. ERROL BELLOT & DAN DE LION - GLOBETROTTING/ TAKEOVER DUB





Hyperdub new recruits L.V. deliver probably the most effortless and summery roots reggae/dubstep hybrid to date with the A. side ‘Globetrotting’ featuring the sweet vocal tones of Errol Bellot. L.V. consists of four South East London musicians/producers whose earthy sound, heavy bass, tight programming and lush vocal collaborations is a welcome reality check in an era of cod reggae lightweights.

The name Errol Bellot first burst onto the reggae scene in 1981. He began recording for S & G Records - one of the main recording studios for established artists like Carol Thompson, Sugar Minott and Winston Reedy. After leaving S and G records, he went on to voice many tracks for the legendary Jah Tubbys (www.jahtubbys.co.uk). In the middle of the eighties Errol joined ‘Unity Sound’ from North London. He returned from a break in the early nineties to sing on the prestigious sound ‘King Original’. He has worked throughout England with the likes of Daddy Freddie, Devon,
Colourman, Wayne Marshall and also toured the Caribbean with Nerious Joseph in the nineties.

On the flip, ‘Takeover’ L.V. take it even deeper, this time with their syrupy low end voiced by Dandelion. Dandelion is the vocalist with Free King Sound. This has been running since 2002 and consists of Lawrence (aka Dub L) Jim (aka King Jimmy) and Drew at the controls (www.myspace.com/freekingsoundsystem).

2005 - HDB002 - PRESSURE feat. WARRIOR QUEEN - MONEY HONEY



This is the second 12” release on Kode9’s Hyperdub label, and marks the label debut of
the mighty Warrior Queen who, as on her releases with the Bug (‘Aktion Pack’) and Sunship (‘Almighty Father’), is takin’ no shit from anyone. This release features the second fresh producer, after Burial, to be blooded by the label.

Pressure’s mixes here present two unique takes on the diversifying grime/dubstep sound. The original mix comes more with a intensely bass heavy, dirty, disjointed feel, and its not clear whether you’re supposed to be jumping around or leaning into the bassbin in a dub coma - work it out for yourself. The equally ambiguous Pressure remix on the flip rolls with a dubbed out, accelerated bashment skank.

With either mix, this release is an unexpected twist in the Hyperdub saga. Let your batty
decide.

2006 - HYPCD001 - KODE9 & THE SPACEAPE - MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE




After the widely acclaimed Burial debut album, Hyperdub throw out another tangential long player, a mutant satellite to the grime/dubstep scenes, this time from label boss Kode9 and resident vocalist Spaceape. Memories of the Future features 14 dread filled flash-backs and flash-forwards from a world trembling in an echology of fear. The future has collapsed in on the present and spaceship earth is on route to nowhere. The album brings together the long sought after Hyperdub debut single 'Sine of the Dub' from early 2004 with other minor classics such as 'Kingstown', recent singles 'Backward' and '9 Samurai' and 10 new tracks of uneasy, sometimes queasy listening. Time scrambling dubtronic poet, Spaceape circulates around the lyrical black hole he calls home with tales of cultural addiction, urban paralysis, bioterror, smoldering flesh and psycho-affective meltdown. Yet they manage to conjure up a strange joy in these hallucinations of dystopia which infect the real present. ‘Glass’ eases you into a false sense of insecurity, a synthetic sea shanty for a spaceship adrift. ‘Victims’ descends down through the dub chamber and resurfaces towards the 'dread pop' of ‘Curious’(featuring debut appearance from Ms.Haptic), and the ‘dread hop’ of ‘Backward’ and ‘Portal’. Spaceape’s dark dictations and demented refrains form the consistent thread through 9’s loping rhythms, deranged melodies and walls of muffled, driving sub-bass. Alongside the singularly infamous 'Sine' are more doses of uniquely sticky, claustrophobic and katatonic bass poetry of 'Nine' and 'Correction'. The album closes with the cold shiver of ‘Lime’ and astro-dancehall of ‘Quantum’. But as Spaceape reminds us in ‘Glass’ – “It’s the beginning, not the end,
that we have to reach last.”

2007 - HYP006 - MASSIVE MUSIC/KODE9 & SPACEAPE - FIND MY WAY/QUANTUM



Hyperdub’s first 12” release of 2007 has a spring in its step. On the A side, Kode9finally drops his long awaited bouncy remix of Massive Music’s ‘Find My Way’ – like Augustus Pablo trapped in the movie Tron, this arcade game skank has a drop that has caused power cuts from Beijing to Brixton. On the flip side, is the tune that this remix eventually spawned and which concluded the “Memories of the Future” album; the 9 is joined by Spaceape for a chunkier, broken edit of “Quantum”.

2006 - HYP005 - KODE9 & THE SPACEAPE feat MS. HAPTIC - CURIOUS/PORTAL



After a summer in their own customized black hole, Kode9 & Spaceape emerge with this single, providing a preview from their incoming album, “Memories of the Future”(Hyperdub Oct 2006). Featuring two of Spaceape’s most upfront vocals yet, ‘Curious’, opens in the wind tunnel, laced by the lush vocals of new recruit to the Hyperdub Kru, Ms. Haptic, and refrains with Spaceape’s infectiously ambivalent chorus – “Maybe just maybe we will save you. . .Maybe just maybe we will kill you”. Rushed along by its bustling hi-hats, ‘Curious’ drops into Hyperdub’s customary wall of sub.

While both tracks feature Kode9’s distinctively offkey combination of melodica and synth, ‘Portal’ swerves into another orbit altogether with deranged, alien synths skewing an accelerated, rollin’ half-step groove, as Spaceape flows from
outer to inner space.

A wake up call to dub zombies everywhere.

2005 - HYP004 - KODE9 & THE SPACEAPE - BACKWARD/9 SAMURAI



On this 4th 10inch vinyl release, Kode9 & the Spaceape step up with a couple of very
different cinematic riddims tracks. ‘Backward’ is easily their most infectious skanker to date, with a vocal hook you’ll not forget [“One step forward, 2 steps back”], cascading brassy synths and a lumbering bassline rushed along by the interstellar wisdom of Spaceape’s upbeat flow.

Already an anthem from Kode9’s weekly Rinse Fm shows and appearances at NYC’s Dubwar party, the instrumental ‘9 Samurai’, with its fanfare intro and militant vox samples is pure funeral march material, descending into grimey synthetic bass, phased snares and deep, deep subs. Both tracks were performed live on Mary-Ann Hobbs’ Breezeblock sessions on Radio 1 in January 2006.

Special thanks to:
Fumio Hayasaka, Steve Barker, Lee Scratch Perry, Loefah

2005 - HYP003 - KODE9 & THE SPACEAPE - KINGSTOWN



This third 10” release on the Hyperdub imprint is already a minor anthem, vibrating the
bits other tunes can’t reach. The instrumental featured in the last set of Radio 1’s John Peel tribute night earlier this year, and on dubplate, has grown into a sure fire rewind at London dubstep/grime nights such as DMZ in Brixton and Forward>> at Plastic People. On this release, not only has infamous Daddi Gee of the first 2 10” releases been abducted by vocalist the Spaceape, but this time, its not about the mutated cover versions, but a straight up Spaceape dubtronic take on Jamaica’s capital city. If that’s not enough, this Kode9 riddim will make you cry with its heart wrenching synth riff, delayed tablas and enough surging sub-bass to sink Babylon.

2004 - HYP002 - REVIEWS

What the Press said about ‘Spit’. . .
IDJ – Dancehall/Roots/Ragga Single of the Month – September ’04
“Having gatecrashed garage’s dubstep domain with their debut “Sign of the Dub’, the London-based duo now follow up that seismic rumble with this enviably deep cruise through the bush of ghosts. Spectral ska chords, a battering ram bassline and the dread-heavy resonance on Daddi Gee’s Satanic sermon supplies a crucial ride into the heart of darkness. Dystopian dub for William Gibson’s cyber generation.”

DJ Magazine – Uk Garage - August/September ’04
“Some seriously dready dubstep from Kode9 featuring some Rasta-style meditative vocals from the deeply resonant Daddi Gee. Heavily poetic with its spoken word style, lyrically this is as rolling and hypnotic as the beats. Kode9 lays down a cavernously deep rhythm track with a sonorous bassline pulse and echo chamber stabs. Like Horsepower fused with dark, dub poetry, this is pungent.”

2004 - HYP002 - KODE9 & DADDI GEE - SPIT



This second release on the Hyperdub imprint sees Kode9 & Daddi Gee picking up the pace, after the katatonic bass of ‘Sign of the Dub’ on HYP001. Again, a mutant cover version [of what?], Daddi Gee’s unique post-apocalypse poetics grace Kode9’s spine of disjointed skank rhythms and depth charge bass pulses. On the flip you’ll find the instrumental, souped up with some skin-tingling dub electronics.

2004 - HYP001 - REVIEWS

Jockey Slut [Feb/March 2004]
Hit of the Month [garage]
“Dance music is rife with mediocrity. Producers move in packs, as scenes evolve stepwise and dubstep is in many ways no different. Here Kode 9 uses covers to challenge that norm. Where “Stalker” was once a Junior Boys love song, he turns it to obsession, amid sparse soca-step shards. “Sign Of The Dub,” however, is truly remarkable: a beatless dub cover of the Prince classic. No percussion means no momentum: you’re immobilized by its immense bass-pulse and delayed reggae stabs. Police sirens wail into the distance while Daddi Gee growls: “Some people say/a man never truly ‘appy/unless a nex’ man/truly dies … the times/it’s the times.” Innovation and zeitgeist in one.”

Mixmag [April 2004]
"This is the ultimate anti-anthem. If you want Eskidance to make noize or 4x4 to bounce DON’T play this awesome tune. Built around a beatless bass-pulse, it’s a startling dub Prince cover at garage tempo, with no momentum. Played in a rave it turns heads and brings the dance to a standstill. Incredible abstract shizzle."

Urb [USA] [March 2004]
“Emerging from London’s furtive dub-step enclave, Kode9 strikes gold by hooking up with spoken word sorcerer Daddi Gee. As deep as Rhythm & Sound, as funky as Moodyman and as filthy as grime’s fiercest, this is head stunningly fresh and shrouded in claustrophobic atmospheric pressure. Sounding like a dervish ritual for existential dreads, this is death disco for deviant dub fiends” – Kevin Martin / The Bug

The Wire [January 2004]
Kevin Martin aka the Bug listed kode9 & Daddi gee’s ‘pulsations’ in his highlights of 2003.

I-D [March 2004]
“Covers are generally shite. Or a cash in. But here dubstep garage pioneer Kode 9 returns covers to the underground’s cutting edge. “Stalker” is a rework of the much-hyped electro balladeers Junior Boys. But where there was once love, now there’s twisted percussive darkness. If, however, you think that’s dark, try Kode 9’s rework of Prince. It’s beatless, intense and paralyzing. Daddi Gee’s booming voice reaches out through the unsettled night. “The times, man… it’s the times.”

The Wire [March 2004]
“Kode9 kicks off Hyperdub.com’s in-house label with. . .two of the darkest, most suffocating tracks ever to come out of the garage/reggae hybrid called dubstep. The entirely beatless ‘Sign of the Dub’ features Daddi Gee muttering nonsequiturs in a molasses baritone like LKJ in a K hole. His cousin lights up a spliff ‘for the very first time’ and in the next phrase is smoking rock; ‘I can’t understand when a rocket ship explode/yet everybody still want fi fly.’ For the five minute duration of the track, time effectively stops, a low bass pulse stilling your heartbeat into hibernating half-speed while pads flicker like the green flash of dusk. ‘Stalker’ is more familiar fare, laying down a swathe of spaceship hum over stop-start syncopations. But its techsteppy grimace is no less paranoid, and the periodic flare of backspinning vinyl sounds like a mind in meltdown.”

Xlr8r [April 2004]
"Hyperdub/dubplate keeper Kode9 launches his Hyperdub imprint with two plates of minimalist UK grime arrangements wrapped around ultra-lethargic MC/spoken wordist Daddi Gee’s fathoms-deep voice. On the first slab, a throbbing bass tone, a semi-open hi-hat and the occasional eternally achoing dub chord are all that jab at Daddi’s recitation of Prince’s ‘Sign of the Times’, while half-time garridge fuels the spooky flipside, ‘Stalker’. ‘Spit’, the second record finds Gee havin’ at Public Enemy’s ‘Welcome to the Terrordrome’ in front of kode9’s chunky, haunted skarage. Order this one up at your shops."

IDJ [April 2004]
“Irresistably fresh, improbably deep and radiantly warm, the sonic vapour trails from a dystopian soundscape, as electronic music targets the next millenium. Rich, cavernous reverbs drench the baritone boom of Gee's effortlessly cool delivery, as these dubstep escapees follow Rhythm and Sound's path on the Berlin to Kingston freeway. Lost in clouds of weed smoke and urban smog, this is minimal and clinically paranoid.”

2004 - HYP001 - KODE9 & DADDI GEE - SINE/STALKER - PRESS RELEASE



After 3 years in operation, Hyperdub is about to launch its record label, featuring productions by Kode9 and vocals by newcomer Daddi Gee. Kode9 set up the South London based www.hyperdub.com project in 2001 to track emergent strains of Jamaican influenced electronic music in London. The website published the first and longest in depth interviews with London’s key underground artists ranging from Ms. Dynamite to Dizzee Rascal and Wiley Kat, from Horsepower to the Bug and Plasticman. Kode9 developed the project in tandem with Ammunition Promotions’ [who run labels like Bingo, Tempa, Road, Texture. . .] www.dubplate.net, a website with a global cult following earned from showcasing dubstep, grime, breakbeat and broken beats dubplates months before their release.

Kode9 has followed the freshest wave of the hyperdub virus into the 21st century, a mutating sound, as much influenced by Jamaican dub and dancehall, dub techno/microhouse as London’s jungle, drum’n’bass and uk garage scenes. He is currently pushing a distinctly South London sound, playing a mixture of dancehall influenced bass heavy post-garage, variously known as dubstep, and grime. In 2000-2001, kode9 promoted the Hyperdub sessions at the Bug Bar in Brixton, South London, one of the first nights to push the dubstep vibe, featuring guests like Horsepower’s Benny ill.