Lovers Dub | 01

A mix to rewind every sweet memory of romance in reverb. Soulful grooves and Lovers Rock blend with dub-soaked echoes and rhythms.

Sweet Sensation Dub - Love Dub Band / Sonia Whittingham

Xxplosive - Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band

Easier to Love - DJ Duckcomb Edit - Sonia

Snakeskin Bib - Fila Brazillia

Onde Anda O Meu Amor - Orlandivo

Rising To The Top - Dee Sharp

Music Is The Word - The Planty Herbs

Memory Lane - Will Sessions

All I Really Need - Emapea

Kiss The Sky - The Intern

Wen Uuu - Shlohmo

Falling (Instrumental) - Dudley Perkins and Madlib

Touch Me, Take Me Mauro Vecchi Re-Edit - Syreeta

Smouche - Dennis Bovell

Aaaaahhhh - Chief

Ceremony - Anchorsong

Sexual Instrumental - Glen Adams & Finesse

"Sweet Sensation Dub" – Love Dub Band feat. Sonia Whittingham

A coveted lovers rock 12" that came backed with a dub version titled "Sweet Sensation Dub," credited to the Love Dub Band. The vocal A-side was the sole release by UK singer Sonia Whittingham, produced by Glen Sloley on the elusive Star Disc label in 1988. It is considered a holy grail of the genre, with original pressings fetching hundreds of dollars. The dub B-side strips down the soulful love song into a dreamy instrumental mix, emphasizing echo-laden drums, bass, and off-beat guitar skanks while ethereal traces of Whittingham's vocals and melody drift in and out. This classic combination of romantic reggae and dub was largely overlooked at the time but The Vinyl Factory celebrated its 2023 reissue on Isle of Jura for a new generation of collectors.

"Xxplosive" – Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band

Dr. Dre's G-funk anthem "Xxplosive" reimagined as a funked-out steel pan instrumental. Bacao R&SB is a Hamburg-based group led by Björn Wagner, known for cutting steel-pan covers of hip-hop and R&B classics for the DJs. Dre's original loops a chopped fragment of Soul Mann & the Brothers' "Bumpy's Lament", a 1971 budget-label cover of an Isaac Hayes Shaft cue from a Pickwick library LP, the same record Erykah Badu's "Bag Lady" draws from. Bacao's 2018 cover, released on Big Crown Records, stays in proper BRSB fashion, with smashing breakbeats and steel pans playing the signature bassline and melody. They even dub in synths and horn lines to echo Nate Dogg's vocal hook melodies, giving the track a breezy Caribbean funk twist.

"Easier to Love (DJ Duckcomb Edit)" – Sonia

DJ Duckcomb (Patrick Billard) put a modern spin on Sonia's "Easier to Love," extending and reworking this vintage Lovers Rock gem. The original was recorded in 1980 by Sonia Ferguson, known simply as Sonia, for London's Harlesden-based Cha Cha label, a reggae cover of the song Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards wrote and produced for Sister Sledge's 1979 We Are Family album. Sonia's lovers rock version transforms the Chic ballad into a lilting reggae groove and became a favorite among lovers rock fans despite being hard to find for years. Original 12" pressings, backed with the rootsy "That's The Way You Feel," remain rare and highly sought-after. Backed by The Overnight Players band, the recording is regarded by Ban Ban Ton Ton as the "essential 1980 shake" of the Sister Sledge tune, an underground classic finally given an official reissue by Backatcha Records in 2023. DJ Duckcomb's edit maintains the sultry vocals and soulful vibe of Sonia's cut, but subtly extends breaks and adds touches to make it more DJ-friendly, perfect for sunset spins and slow dances.

"Snakeskin Bib" – Fila Brazillia

Appears on the duo's 1999 album A Touch of Cloth, the first release on their own Tritone imprint (later rebranded Twentythree), during a peak creative period when producers Steve Cobby and David McSherry were fusing downtempo electronica with funk, jazz, and dub influences. Hard funk guitar elements blend with Moog-ish synths and jazzy horns to create a chilled yet immersive sound riding a laid-back breakbeat. The track cheekily samples "Queremos Guerra" by Brazilian icons Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, and Jorge Ben, embedding a fragment of Afro-Brazilian funk into Fila's downtempo groove. The Hull-based outfit was one of the most acclaimed acts in the downtempo scene, with a reputation for genre-blending productions and remix work for dozens of artists. Many fans consider A Touch of Cloth the absolute top of their career, a perfect blend of jazz and trip-hop with a dose of abstract psychedelia, with "Snakeskin Bib" often cited as a standout and essential spin for downtempo DJs.

"Onde Anda O Meu Amor" – Orlandivo

A Brazilian samba-jazz groove with a great backstory. Orlandivo Honório de Souza, who also recorded as Orlann Divo, was a singer, composer, and percussionist who came up in Rio de Janeiro's bossa nova scene, playing percussion in Ed Lincoln's band and releasing solo records in the 1960s. He co-wrote "Onde Anda O Meu Amor" with partner Roberto Jorge, and a young Jorge Ben covered the song on his 1964 album Ben É Samba Bom. Fast forward to 1977: Orlandivo revisited the song for his self-titled LP on Copacabana Records, a record that would later become a cult favorite among Brazilian music aficionados. Orlandivo's warm vocals and scat singing glide over a mellow arrangement enriched by Sivuca on accordion and the maestro João Donato on piano and organ, giving the track a timeless, dreamy quality. The album was recorded when classic bossa and samba were considered passé; by the late '70s, Brazil was moving into disco and funk, and Orlandivo's record gained little notice on release. Decades later, crate-diggers and reissue labels including Kindred Spirits revived it, hailing it as a true classic from the vaults of Brazilian bossa and downtempo samba.

"Rising To The Top" – Dee Sharp

A Lovers Rock cover of an American R&B hit, given a reggae makeover in early 1980s London. The song originates from Keni Burke's 1982 classic "Risin' to the Top," a smooth funk groove that became Burke's signature tune and a Quiet Storm staple, later famously sampled in numerous hip-hop and R&B tracks. In 1983, Dee Sharp, a UK reggae singer born Derek Trought, teamed with Fashion Records to record this faithful yet fresh reggae version. At the time, Sharp was one of the rising stars of British lovers rock and had already notched reggae chart hits with "Let's Dub It Up" and "Swing & Dine." "Rising to The Top" became his fourth and final release for Fashion, hitting big in the reggae charts in 1983. His relaxed, honeyed vocals glide over a bubbling bassline, skanking guitar, and a rocksteady-style drum machine beat. The track remained a collector's item for decades before its official 2023 repress returned it to circulation.

"Music Is The Word" – The Planty Herbs

A lush instrumental that balances jazzy, soulful vibes with modern beats. Dusty '70s funk samples reassembled into a mellow hip-hop groove, with a warm, hazy Rhodes piano loop and a snappy boom-bap drum break. The Planty Herbs are a duo from Tilburg, Netherlands, Robbert van der Bildt and Bobby van Putten, both conservatory-trained musicians (the bio calls them "herbalists") with a passion for old-school sounds. They dig into crates for source material, piecing together obscure jazz-funk records with the exact samples kept secret, adding to the mystique. A leaked rough mix circulated in 2009 and got picked up by E.A.S.E. of Nightmares On Wax for an official 12" release on Damian Stanley's Wax On Records the following year. Though an underground release, "Music Is The Word" achieved notable success in niche circles and got a 2012 reissue that cemented its cult status.

"Memory Lane" – Will Sessions

A soulful funk instrumental that pays loving tribute to the golden age of '90s hip-hop with a live-band reimagining of Nas's "Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park)," capturing the nostalgic, jazzy warmth of the original while adding new layers of musicality. The tone here is smooth and wistful: picture buttery Rhodes electric piano chords, a gently loping bassline, and crisp boom-bap drums played live. The track lifts from The Elmatic Instrumentals, the Detroit ensemble's 2011 reconstruction of every beat on Illmatic, made in tandem with Elzhi using the original sample sources as a foundation. Producer Sam Beaubien and the band rebuilt Nas's record by ear, transcribing samples and replaying them on real instruments. The original Nas track sampled Reuben Wilson's "We're in Love" from 1971, alongside Marley Marl and Biz Markie cuts that DJ Premier scratched into the chorus. Will Sessions records on analog tape when possible, lending the warm, vintage tone that makes the result sound at once nostalgic and fresh.

"All I Really Need" – Emapea

A jazzy lo-fi hip-hop gem played late at night, with vinyl crackle in the air and mellow piano chords floating over a boom-bap beat. Emapea delivers smooth, jazz-inflected melodies over hazy, downtempo drums, with a touch of dub influence in his spacious mixing and reverb tails. Released as the opening track of Beat Catz Jazz in June 2023, the core piano riff has a soulful, Bill Evans-meets-Bob James quality. The Polish beatmaker has been releasing music since the mid-2010s, with a stateside breakthrough when he teamed up with LA emcee Kid Abstrakt on 2020's Jazzy Vibes. He crafts his sound on vintage Akai S950 and S3000XL samplers, instruments built for the kind of dusty texture that defined the boom-bap era.

"Kiss The Sky" – The Intern

A dreamy, instrumental hip-hop track infused with dusty jazz and soul. The beat has a slow swing, around 85-90 BPM, with a deep kick and snappy snares that sit back in the mix, giving it a lo-fi warmth. There's a vocal fragment that echoes the title, adding a haunting melody without full lyrics. The Intern is a Berlin-based beatmaker, producer, and record collector whose style edges into the lo-fi and chillhop realm with a distinct hip-hop backbone and jazz overtones, in the lineage of J Dilla's gentler productions or Nujabes filtered through a European jazz sensibility.

"Wen Uuu" – Shlohmo

Shlohmo released "Wen Uuu" on his Vacation EP in early 2012 via Friends of Friends Music, following his acclaimed 2011 debut album Bad Vibes. The EP dropped on February 7, 2012. A beautiful electronic piece that can be described as ghostly and emotive, Shlohmo (Henry Laufer), an L.A. beat-scene icon, imbued "Wen Uuu" with his signature textural sound design: crackling static, detuned synth chords that wobble like they're underwater, and sparse, heavily processed percussion. The drum programming is unorthodox, with the swing of hip-hop but the spaciousness of dub or ambient. Shlohmo uses side-chain compression (making the music duck under the kick drum) to create a pulsing sensation. The track also features creative use of pitch-bending, with vocal "uuu" croons sliding up and down in pitch for an almost woozy feeling. Over all of this, Shlohmo weaves melancholic melodies, often using chopped and pitch-shifted vocal samples as quasi-instruments. "Wen Uuu" contains an R&B sample from Aaliyah's "No One Knows How to Love Me (Quite Like You Do)" off her 1994 debut Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, which he distorts into ethereal vocals that swirl around the mix. Genre-wise, "Wen Uuu" falls within the realm of what was dubbed post-dubstep or chillwave meets instrumental hip-hop in 2012.

"Falling (Instrumental)" – Dudley Perkins & Madlib

An instrumental hip-hop soul gem from 2003, "Falling" appears on Dudley Perkins' A Lil' Light album on Stones Throw Records, entirely produced by Otis "Madlib" Jackson Jr. The album was recorded in California and showcased Madlib's signature dusty, sample-centric production beneath Perkins' crooning rap vocals. "Falling" itself samples the lush orchestration of "Dawn Mists" by Stringtronics, composed by Barry Forgie for the 1972 library LP Mindbender, layering dreamy strings over a head-nodding beat. An official instrumental version was later issued on A Lil' Light Instrumentals. Dudley Perkins, also known by his alter-ego Declaime, is an underground rapper and singer from Oxnard, California, and A Lil' Light was his debut under his real name, spotlighting an eccentric, stoned-soul vocal style over Madlib's beats. Madlib, by this point, was renowned in indie hip-hop for his crate-digging production and projects like Quasimoto and Yesterdays New Quintet. Here he concocts a mellow, emotive vibe, blending dusty drums, muted bass, and that ethereal Stringtronics sample, his penchant for obscure European library music giving the instrumental a cinematic feel.

"Touch Me, Take Me (Mauro Vecchi Re-Edit)" – Rita Wright

A common misconception worth clearing up: the Rita Wright on this 1978 Jet Records 45 is not Syreeta Wright, the famed Motown singer who briefly recorded under the same name in the 1960s. The Jet UK Rita Wright is a different singer entirely, a UK vocalist who appears to have only ever cut this one record. "Touch Me Take Me" itself sits over a borrowed instrumental track: it's a cover of Intimate Strangers' 1976 disco tune "Love Sounds," and uses the same backing, complete with sultry bassline and wah-wah guitars, albeit with new vocals and a slightly less raunchy mix. Before Wright's version, an earlier rendition titled "Touch Me, Take Me" had been recorded by Ester Byrde in 1975 on Survival Records, a 45 that became a holy grail for rare soul collectors. Wright's 1978 cut on Jet gave the song new life, her angelic voice gliding over the orchestral soul arrangement, delivering a slow-burning performance that has made the song a beloved two-step soul classic. Italian DJ Mauro Vecchi's modern re-edit subtly extends and rearranges the original, not adding new instrumentation but rather re-sequencing and emphasizing the danceable elements for a new generation of disco and modern soul aficionados.

"Smouche" – Dennis Bovell

"Smouche" is a deep cut from Dennis Bovell's 1981 album Brain Damage, a groundbreaking double LP on Fontana that merged reggae with multiple genres. Recorded at Bovell's own Studio 80 in South London on 24-track tape, the album gave the Barbadian-British musician free rein to experiment. Bovell wrote, produced, and played the majority of instruments on Brain Damage, demonstrating his virtuosity on guitar, bass, drums, viola, and keyboards. "Smouche" rides on a smooth midtempo rhythm that, while rooted in reggae, incorporates a soulful chord progression and warm horn melodies. In Bovell's own words, the Brain Damage project was about taking reggae as far as possible, like jazz, hybridizing it with other styles. Dennis "Blackbeard" Bovell earned renown not only for roots reggae and dub (see his 1978 LP Strictly Dub Wize under the alias Blackbeard) but also for pioneering the softer lovers rock style, producing the genre's seminal hit "Silly Games" by Janet Kay in 1979. For "Smouche," Bovell enlisted top musicians including Rico Rodriguez on trombone, Eddie "Tan Tan" Thornton on trumpet, and John Kpiaye on guitar, whose finesse can be heard in the track's arrangements, particularly the brass section that adds a jazzy flourish. While Brain Damage spent years underappreciated, Optimo Music's JD Twitch reissued "Smouche" and "Heaven" as a 12" in their Disco Plate Series, calling the album a "forgotten masterpiece" and solidifying its status as a collectible and influential record.

"Aaaaahhhh" – Chief

A quirky instrumental hip-hop beat by Chief, a Swiss producer known for his mellow yet forward-thinking style. "Aaaaahhhh" appears on the Echo Chamber collection, released February 19, 2014 on Feelin' Music as a free download. The beat is built around a distinctive vocal sample, a prolonged "aaaaahhhh" cry as the title suggests, chopped over head-nodding drums. Chief recorded it using his arsenal of vintage samplers including the SP-404 and Maschine, giving the track a warm, lo-fi texture reminiscent of J Dilla or Madlib's instrumental work. There's no glossy studio polish here. True to the Echo Chamber concept, it sounds like a raw snippet from the producer's beat tapes, complete with vinyl crackle and unquantized drum kicks that swing off-grid. Despite its rough edges, "Aaaaahhhh" has musicality: Chief layers gentle Rhodes keyboard chords and a humming bassline under the vocal stab, creating an atmospheric vibe that's equal parts soulful and abstract.

"Ceremony" – Anchorsong

A punchy and vibrant electronic instrumental by Anchorsong, released in 2016 on Brighton-based Tru Thoughts Records, the track is the closing song from Anchorsong's sophomore album Ceremonial. "Ceremony" has a celebratory, ritualistic feel, blending percussive Afrobeat and Highlife influences with modern electronic beats. The entire Ceremonial album drew heavily from 1970s African music, with Anchorsong (Tokyo-born, London-based Masaaki Yoshida) crediting a record-shop discovery of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo's The Vodoun Effect for sparking the new direction: "It had a profound effect on me, and I began to dig deeper into '70s African music." The arrangement of "Ceremony" gradually introduces layers, a bouncing bassline, a syncopated kick drum pattern, and dramatic violin and string arrangements that soar over the rhythmic foundation.

"Sexual (Instrumental)" – Glen Adams & Finesse

Recorded and mixed in 1982 at Blank Tape Recording Studios in New York City, a hub for early hip-hop and disco. "Sexual (Instrumental)" is a synth-driven reggae-disco dub version of Marvin Gaye's classic "Sexual Healing," created by Jamaican reggae veteran Glen Adams alongside an outfit credited as Finesse. Stripping away T-Ski Valley's rap vocals from the original 1982 release, the instrumental highlights a sultry groove driven by a pulsating bassline, crisp electronic drums, and Glen Adams' own syncopated keyboard and organ riffs. Only traces of vocals remain, with breathy female refrains drenched in reverb and delay floating in and out of the mix, adding the Lovers Rock sensuality. The result is a spacious, dubbed-out "island disco" cut that transforms the soulful melody into a modern dub classic. After decades of obscurity, the track was resurrected by Isle of Jura Records as the opener on Instrumental Dubs #1, first issued in 2022 with a 2024 edition following two years later (becoming my favorite track of 2024).

Listen to: Lovers Dub | 02

Dig deeper: Crate Cannon | Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing”