The Dub Chronicles Champion Dub With ‘Simba (Return To The Throne)’ Album

Canadian-based reggae band The Dub Chronicles is in love with dub music and its unique spirit-healing abilities.

“Dub music has a way of healing and calming the spirit. The flurries of echoes and reverbs always add another element and dimension to the riddim of the song. The drum and bass are heavier, with shimmering splashes of echoes, reverbs, and instrument drop outs,” band member Craig Rattos said.

“You hear, but more importantly feel all of the fine details inside of a riddim that most people don’t notice in the song. Every instrument gets highlighted in its own special way, in its own special time and there is a lot of meditative space that the dub creates.”  

He is one of the three members of the band, which includes his brothers, Jonathan Rattos and Ryan Rattos. The Dub Chronicles are three brothers/musicians from the Toronto area that are heavily inspired by the golden era of reggae in the 70s/80s. They have high hopes for their recently released 18-song album, ‘Simba (Return to the Throne)’ which is the perfect package for this group’s modern/vintage roots that blend Reggae and Dub with flourishes of bebop and jazz.

The band has a great appreciation for reggae and dub music, and hail the work of its earlier proponents, especially Bob Marley and the Wailers. Last year, the band did a cover of Bunny Wailer’s Dreamland that was a big hit with dub fans all over the world.

“We did the song live recently, a tribute to Bunny Wailer – Dreamland which was featured in Dubwise Jamaica. The fans really responded well to it,” Craig said.

The song Dreamland was written by Bunny Wailer and Al Johnson and was first released by The Wailers in 1971. It was adapted from My Dream Island

The Dub Chronicles album went live across all digital streaming platforms on April 23, and they hope that when the COVID-19 pandemic eases, they will be able to return to touring.

Fans of Dub and Reggae will especially appreciate that the first nine songs on the album which are “dry” versions of the songs, while the second nine tracks are “dub” versions, complete with extra echoes/delays and spring reverb/ phaser effects mixed expertly by Casey Burnett of Burnett Town Sound. And while The Dub Chronicles have created other albums in the past, this is the first project that they produced, mixed and mastered all on their own.

The band will have vinyls of the album available as well – toward the end of the summer.

“The demand is pretty high. Our fans have been asking for vinyls of our previous albums but they haven’t been made available. Immediately upon releasing ‘Simba,’ fans made it clear that they wanted a copy on vinyl,” Craig explained.

Craig went on to say that the album has a lot of “reggae educational concepts” that take place organically throughout the album.

Songs like “Herbsman,” for instance, in combination with lyrics written by Kumar, use Reggae as a platform to educate listeners on building up their immune systems naturally and embracing a more “natural and healthy” way of life. Other songs, such as “Pack Your Bags” or “All Your Days a Breeze,” are a little more relatable to the average listener and will cater to a wider audience, he said. But even those songs will, in some way, encourage audiences to look at themselves in the mirror and persevere through tough times.

One of the most attractive things about the album is all the little nuances of sound that come in unexpected and delightful ways. Alongside Craig on drums and Ryan on guitar, Jonathan brings a variety of instrumental sounds – including the left-handed Moog Bass, keyboards, organs, piano, melodica, spin sounds, and he controls all the dub effects when performing in a live setting.

This is perhaps highlighted most strongly on the standout single “All Your Days a Breeze,” which features fellow Toronto artist Tash Lorayne.

“There are plans to have visuals for “All Your Days a Breeze” featuring Tash Lorayne. Hopefully, that will be done later this summer,” Craig said.

As the fifth track on the album, the upbeat groove works perfectly with Lorayne’s Reggae/Jazz lilting vocals as she tells the story of a man and a woman working on their relationship and bettering each other and themselves along the way.