B:Dum B:Dum Sound were / are a Mancunian trio, who in 1993 released a Midnight Express-sampling Balearic Beat favourite titled Istanbul.* Mysticisms then revived this in demand track as a dubplate in 2021. I’m not sure if the 3 friends, Jamie Crossley, Steve Gears and Karl McGinley, are still working together, but Crossley went onto collaborate with Brian Eno and Jah Wobble, and currently records as part of Shunt Voltage and Marconi Union. Something, however, has now surfaced from the B:Dum B:Dum archives, collected as SBG In Dub. The digital release containing 5, presumably 1990s recordings, plus a further 6 reworks and dubs.  

There are 3 takes on the song In No State, 2 of which are dub techno influenced. Buzzing, booming, body moving, riding, gliding on half-speed B-lines. full of flickering, fractured keys and circuitry twittering, singing like birds. The third, though, is scratchy post-punk funk. Borrowing Barney Sumner’s guitar and echoing both LCD Soundsystem and local heroes ACR. 

This Time Maybe is cut from the same sonic cloth. Dark, claustrophobic, evolving into a hypnotic mantra. Turn The Silence Down, too, in its Volume Up mix, is funky, but a lot more robotic, adding acidic TB-303 twists. The Dub Disco do-over of this tune, again recalls New Order, but house-ier, hitting like something from Technique, while its Version returns to 4 / 4-ed dance floor dub. Washed in static and spaced-out percussion. Similar, say, to Birmingham’s Rockers Hi-Fi. 

Mind Is The Temple begins slightly Gothic. Steve Gears’ vocals lend everything a bit of a Bauhaus / Love & Rockets edge, but this is doubled down on here by ethereal, choral backing care of the mysteriously monikered Cumbo. The OG bumps to a Jah Wobble-esque bass-line, while 2 remixes swap this for Basic Channel-esque textures, and reduce its delay-drenched guitar riffs to waves of feedback, crackle and ghostly rattle. Waste’s cavernous dread pounding comes with moody, Twin Peaks-like strings. 

*As far as I know it was Mancunian guru Moonboots who uncovered and popularised this gem.

SBG In Dub can be ordered directly from BDum BDum Sound. 

A big thank you to Acid House Chancers’ Paul Watt for the heads-up.