Absolute Tribal House Masterpice for San Francisco based electronic musical duo Dubtribe Sound System.

Dubtribe consisted of singers Sunshine Jones and Moonbeam Jones, but also included many sit in and “on tour” musicians over the years. Originally born in a rent party, Dubtribe Sound System distinguished themselves as performers by performing live for many hours, rather than replaying their recordings from dat tapes or portable computers, and touring without stopping, often bringing their own sound, lights, and traveling family with them. But unlike their few counterparts in North America, Dubtribe would depart from the warehouse movement and establish themselves in the mid-1990s as a grass roots tour de force, refusing help, press, or money from any outside interests

Origins

Sunshine Jones, an ex-punk rocker and Bay Area native, taking in the still-emerging sounds of hip-hop. At club Townsend, DJ Doc Martin broke out some house music. “One night he just started playing Marshall Jefferson and Ten City, and it was a real shock,” Sunshine says. “I left angry with Martin because he sold out on hip-hop.”

After Sunshine spent a summer on the Spanish party isle of Ibiza in 1989, it started to make sense. All shapes and sizes getting together to dance, he says. I wanted to share that. It changed me forever.

Back in San Francisco, Sunshine had been leading an acid-jazz band. When it needed a vocalist, he took on Moonbeam in 1990. (“I didn’t want to meet anybody named Moonbeam,” Sunshine says. “I had the shit beat out of me for my name.”) Inspired by Ibiza, he tried to transform his group into a live house-music act. Many of the band members bailed, leaving just Sunshine and Moonbeam to go it alone as Dubtribe. At first, it was a grind trying to get booked in a DJ-centric world, but the duo’s DIY ‘Come Unity’ events at the Bryant Street pad (the first event was a rent party) were a hit, and soon Dubtribe was making records.^[1]

Conclusion

Dubtribe Sound System performed their final show at Cielo in New York City on December 1, 2005.

They reunited on September 5, 2009 to play at the “Buzz Reunion 101″ event at Ibiza Nightclub in Washington, D.C.

Notable recordings

• After a few years of cassette tape, and bootleg notoriety Dubtribe released 1993′s 12″ single “Mother Earth.” the single was frequently quoted as being a major influence in the origins of The Chemical Brothers, DJ Icey, and many other breakbeat producers of the 1990s. Reaching the bottom of the UK Dance charts, included on hundreds of dance compilations, and remains a commonly sampled record.

• Their 1996 ep ‘Momentito Por Favor’ was instrumental in broadening the latin house and deep house sound of the underground dance scene in the United States

• In 1999 Dubtribe released their 5th album, Bryant Street, and while it undersold the expectations of Jive executives, the track Equitoreal was included on hundreds of dance compilations, and DJ mixes. Equitoreal rose up the UK Dance charts while Dubtribe were struggling to be released from their six album agreement with BMG. After refusing to allow Wrigley’s Gum to license the song for a UK television commercial, the band was summarily dropped.

• 2001′s ‘Do It Now,’ intended as the final Dubtribe Sound System recording, found itself in the hands of the UK Dance Music Guru Simon Dunmore of Defected Records Ltd.. Dunmore and his staff created a world wide phenomena of the song, and gave it a 5 year life span in turntable and charts all over the world. ‘Do It Now’ remains by far Dubtribe’s most popular and well known recording.

Notable events

• World Electronic Music Festival, Barrie, Ontario
• Family Affair, Akron OH
• The Big Chill, UK
• Sunrise Festival, Baltimore MD
• Alachua County Music Harvest
• Illegal Beach Party adjacent to the Winter Music Conference (Voted best of conference by MixMag)

Related articles

• (DEEP TRIBAL AFRO HOUSE) Anthony Shake Shakir Meets BBC – Oni Ayhun (sydneyunderground.org)
• Postmodern Discourses [Work in Progress] (simonjanes.wordpress.com)
• DEEP SOULFUL HOUSE: Michael Jackson – Rock With You (Frankie Knuckles Remix) (sydneyunderground.org)
• (DEEP HOUSE JAZZ) Fred P – Emotive Vibrations (Black Jazz Consortium) (sydneyunderground.org)
• The Shakedown: Mark Farina Jazzes Up The Barbary (independentphilly.com)
• back 2 basics! (alejandrogaray451.wordpress.com)
• Energy Initiatives Bring Tribes and Government Together (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• [INTERVIEW] with Up & Coming House DJ/Producer Alex Madden from London, United Kingdom (electrifymag.com)
• MUSIC NEWS: Erasure, Björk, Washington, Lady Gaga, The Feeling, Kylie Minogue, Phoenix, Body Language, When Saints Go Machine (towleroad.com)
• Flash Atkins – Campervan Ep (recordlabelservices.com)