Music From Memory‘s final 12″ for 2017 is a reissue of Dub Oven’s self-released, and sadly one-off, 1983 EP ‘Skin N Bones.
Gary Miles and Blaise Smith met at San Francisco’s notorious 181 Club in 1982.
“This straight/same sex/swing-both-ways late-night dive bar was tucked away in one of the city’s most risky, drug-riddled neighbourhoods”, explains the press release. “Stationed near the SF Museum of Modern Art it attracted a wild audience of local patrons, aspiring young artists and music heads”.
Hooking up with soul vocalist Celeste Miller, they created a 3-track record influenced by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry / Upsetters Jamaican dub tracks, new wave and electronic funk.
The resulting music was hard to define and one that was perhaps simply too forward thinking for its time.
Listen to snippets below.
