Dreadzone / Don Letts / Greg Dread
Serious Dropout [RSD26]
This is an exclusive release for Record Store Day 2026. Available from Saturday 18th April over the counter, with online sales beginning at 8:00pm on Monday 20th April. Strictly 1 per customer. Click notify me above to be kept up to date.For this special release on Echo Beach, London Dub legends Greg Dread and Don Letts join forces with Frankfurt Dub collective Serious Dropout.Greg Dread selected highlight tracks from the collective’s timeless catalogue and fuses them into a thrilling seamless mega mix while Don Letts provides vocal shouts, resembling the atmosphere of a live sound system experience. They combined elderly and brand new material.Founded Frankfurt in the mid 90s, Serious Dropout is a collective of producers, DJs and musicians with various projects blending Dub Reggae with different forms of Electronic music reflecting their various musical backgrounds ranging from Techno House and leftfield Electronica to Reggae and Dancehall, Breakbeat and Drum`n`Bass. Greg Dread is a writer, producer, drummer, dj and founding member of leading UK Dub band Dreadzone, operating since 1993. In the 80s he had been a member of Big Audio Dynamite together with Mick Jones, formerly with Punk legends The Clash.Don Letts is known for his work as Grammy-winning filmmaker, creator of legendary music videos and also as an acclaimed Selector since the late 70s, when he helped to form the connection between Reggae and Punk by playing Dub records in The Roxy, London’s first Punk club. He remains a defining voice in British subculture.
Echo Beach
LP
RSD 2026
Dubmones
Dubmones
The Ramones were punks before punk rock was even invented. With their catchy, sing-along tunes, iconic hair styles and outfits, Joey, Dee Dee, Johnny and Tommy rewrote rock history and are now, as part of the first wave of US punk, firmly considered part of the subcultural world heritage. In the DUB-cultural world, on the other hand, their footprint has been pretty slim, particularly if one considers their stomping, three-chord songs, instantly recognizable chants (“Gabba gabba hey!”) and laconic humour. There are a few reggae and Latin versions of their songs online, but never before have the Ramones been honoured with an entire album in early reggae style…until now, bang on time for the band's 50th anniversary in 2024.The label Echo Beach, a bit of a specialist for missions such as these with a string of releases including “Bad Brains in Dub”, “Dubby Stardust”, got together with André Meyer (production, bass) and Manougazou (production, guitar). Both were part of the 2008 Echo Beach New Wave/Dub project DubXanne and were involved in the production and subsequent live shows. Also back in the team is keyboarder and DubXanne mastermind Guido Craveiro, who plays Hammond organ and piano on half of the tracks. The other two additions to the core team are singer and all-round instrumentalist Sebastian Sturm and drummer Raul Pfeffer.Together they homed in on the 11 most iconic Ramones three-minute-singalongs, including "Blitzkrieg Bop", "I Wanna Be Sedated", "Pet Sematary" and "Rock'n'Roll Highschool", and treated them to a reggae make-over. The whole process was kicked off by a slightly off-beat question (reggae music does that to you): What if Joey, Johnny, Tommy and Dee Dee had gotten together not in NYC, but in Kingston? And then stepped up to the mic alongside local singing and deejay greats?In musical terms the answer is surprisingly plausible and the line-up is sensational, even for a label like Echo Beach with its unrivalled connections. From up-and-coming youngsters to living legends, everyone is included, albeit with a focus on the elder statemen and stateswomen: the vast majority of the guests are over 60 and look back on deeply impressive careers! The artists come from Jamaica, the USA, the UK and Germany. All contributed one or two songs, and all of them tackle the songs in pairs with infectiously good humour, transforming legendary punk rock bangers into unpredictable dub tracks. Ramones’ classics such as "Blitzkrieg Bop" with its trademark battle cry "Hey! Ho! Let's Go!", "Sheena Is A Punkrocker" and "The KKK Took My Baby Away" are slowed down and underpinned with roots and rocksteady riddims. It almost goes without saying that the lyrics have been adapted to everyday Jamaican life with a great deal of fun and creativity. And amidst all the icons of early reggae, the Ramones also make an appearance: in the opening track "Pinhead", for example, we learn that the Ramones did actually listen to reggae and had even been planning a reggae album.
Echo Beach
CD | LP
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