All analogue dub performance project
Tim Ellis has gone back to his recording roots with an all analogue performance using reel to reel tape recorders. Digital Native Kyle Munro started his career at Hybrid under the Future Jobs scheme and is now undertaking an apprenticeship under Ellis, learning about the history of recording technology and using professional tape recorders creatively.
Ellis says ‘I remember teaching in FE colleges when the first digital technology came along, heads of departments and most staff simply embraced it and hastily let the analogue equipment go. Now we’re integrating analogue technology and techniques into our training for young people – it’s good for them to have an understanding of what came before digital, much in the same way that colleague Stella Carr uses a printing press alongside a scanner.’
The live project is called General Theory of Dub. All instruments are recorded by Ellis to eight track tape and Munro uses a four track reel to reel for live effects, tape scratching and analogue sampling: both play melodica and stylophone. In the performance Ellis mixes the music in much the same way as the pioneering producers of the 70’s and 80’s, such as Lee Perry and King Tubby using an old Soundcraft mixing console as a musical instrument.
Their first performance is on 24th April at Leamington Irish Club, followed by Bruton Horse Fair 4th June and a performance commissioned by BASS Festival in Birmingham, at the Hare and Hounds 28th June.
