Avec à leur actif respectif tant d’albums, de collaborations, et de sessions live dans le monde entier, on pourrait  penser que les deux entités — Vibronics & Brain Damage — n’ont plus rien à prouver. Elles ont néanmoins bien des points communs, notamment un certain côté insatiable, suractif, infatigable, mais aussi un certain sens du défi, du concept et de la remise en question. L’exercice dont il est question ici va au-delà de la simple rencontre : les présentations entre les artistes ont été faites via des remixes et des sessions live depuis bien longtemps. Il s’agit plutôt de la collision éphémère de deux univers, le temps d’une tournée et d’un album, aboutissant à la naissance d’une troisième entité, non répertoriée jusqu’à lors.

Vibronics et Brain Damage se réunissent autour d’un concept, une inspiration narrative, qui surprendra sans doute : l’expérience des soldats anglo-carribéens et franco-africains lors du conflit de la première guerre mondiale. L’historien universitaire, poète et songwriter Madu Messenger, utilise le fruit d’années de recherche pour nous présenter une série de textes traitant, dans ce cadre précis, de sujets clés comme le voyage, l’amitié, la guerre, et la mort. Ce projet a donc notamment pour but d’offrir une expérience d’apprentissage sur une période encore souvent méconnue de notre histoire, établissant des parallèles troublants avec des considérations plus contemporaines, de chocs culturels, d’immigrations, de pouvoirs impériaux et d’horreurs de guerre, qui nous touchent tous encore à l’heure actuelle. Forts d’une réflexion sur ce sujet sensible, les musiciens du projet, aux origines diverses, anglofrançaises, jamaïcaines ou asiatiques, se permettent ici d’opérer un rapprochement culturel opposé à certains modèles d’asservissements et de communautarismes. Le reggae/dub digital de Brain Damage et Vibronics se teinte donc d’influences variées, combinant le meilleur d’un savoir-faire à la spontanéité de la rencontre et de l’expérience humaine.

Les deux producteurs, Steve Vibronics et Martin Nathan transplantent une partie de leur studio sur scène, pour ce qui est tout sauf une confrontation, une compétition ou autre “battle”. On parle plutôt ici d’une mise en commun de deux savoir-faire d’artistes aux sensibilités distinctes, non pas élevés l’un contre l’autre, mais plutôt en symbiose, au service d’une esthétique, d’un feeling, d’un propos. Il s’agit conjointement de lutter une fois de plus contre la rigueur des machines sollicitées, pour asséner un reggae/dub tour à tour léché, puis distordu, hypnotique et répétitif, néanmoins toujours surprenant, à grands renforts de réverbérations ténèbreuses, d’échos improbables et de mixes osés qui ont fait le succès de leurs sessions live ces 15 dernières années.

On reconnaitra également le style de Vibronics de part la présence des deux vocalistes, Madu Messenger et M Parvez, venant illustrer de leurs voix si particulières et complémentaires, le concept de cette rencontre : une certaine réflexion autour de l’expérience des soldats anglo-carribéens et franco-africains lors du conflit de la première guerre mondiale.

Enfin, si tout parait pensé, travaillé en amont, si rien ne semble avoir été laissé au hasard, une fragilité est néanmoins conservée, qui n’est autre que le reflet d’une spontanéité intacte, nous rappelant à chaque minutes que le projet est résolument atypique, et, par essence, éphémère…

Références : Dour Festival, Reggae Geel, Fusion Festival, Seasplash Festival, UNOD Weekender, Télérama Dub Festival, Riddim Collision Festival, …

 

La création « Empire Soldiers » / Brain Damage meets Vibronics, a été labellisée par la Mission Gouvernementale du Centenaire de la Première Guerre Mondiale.
www.centenaire.org

Background info :

« In many ways the First World War is still seen as a white mans war, but it was a ‘world war’. The European empires had to utilise all of their resources during the conflict, including the manpower of their colonies.
More then eight and half million men fought for Britain and of these nearly three million came from the colonies with India supplying approximately 1.5 million men. Even the Caribbean islands of Britain West Indies,Empire Soldiers pic2 with their small populations, mustered some 15,000. France was able to call on some 170,000 of her African colonial troops many of them coming from Senegal, some 30,000 would be killed in action.
The French had no problem using their black colonial troops in combat roles, for the British it was a different matter. A very strict racial policy was followed e.g. Indian troops were seen as having a good fighting spirit and served as combat troops. Though some West Indians troops would be involved in fighting in the Middle East, the majority of them would serve, along with some 140,000 Chinese, as members of labour battalions. These unsung soldiers were the backbone of the armies; at times working in horrendous conditions they moved supplies, dug trenches, laid railway and communication lines, built and mended the roads that took men to the front lines.
This album was created to tell the other half that is seldom told and stands as a testament to the colonials of colour who served during the Great War of 1914-18. »

[ Madu Messenger – 2013 ]

Brain Damage & Vibronics unleash a fiery dubwise journey into the lesser known volumes of history. When two of Europe’s most notorious dub producers and an international cast of singers meet up to discus the start of the Great War 100 years ago, you know the results are going to be big. «Empire Soldiers» is the often overlooked story of the colonial troops in World War One, a heavyweight musical collaboration with an emotive set of lyrical tales from Africa, Asia and The Caribbean told by Madu Messenger, Parvez, Sir Jean and Mohammed El Amraoui.

This original creation will be turned into a album [ cd & LP / Jarring Effects / oct 2013 ], a set of 3 Sound System exclusive 10″ mixes, and a live tour featuring Parvez & Madu Messenger.

With a strong background of countless LPs, collaborations and live sessions all around the world to their credit, we could think that both entities have little left to prove. Yet, they both have much in common, particularly a certain ever-growing and untiring creativity, but also an undeniable sense of challenge, concept and constant questioning. The issue that is here discussed extends way beyond a mere meeting: the presentations between the artists have been made a long time ago, through lots of remixes and co-bill live sessions. This momentum is now more a matter of the transient collision of their respective universes, for a live tour and a epic LP entitled “Empire Soldiers”, giving rise to a third entity, unclassified until then.

Vibronics & Brain Damage teamed up and decided to come together around a concept, a narrative inspiration that will undoubtedly surprise: Anglo-Caribbean and Franco-African soldiers’ experience during the first world war. The academic historian, poet & songwriter, Madu Messenger, uses the product of years of study and research, to develop, within that very framework, a series of texts on some key topics such as travel, friendship, war and death. This project thus aims at offering a learning experience about this often little-known period of our history. It will draw troubling parallels with some more contemporary considerations on culture shocks, immigration, imperial powers and horrors of war that still affects all of us today. Following their reflection on this sensitive issue, the musicians of the project’s – all of many other origins, Anglo-French, Jamaican or Asian – move towards a cultural alignment, opposite to certain enslaving and communitarian models. Brain Damage and Vibronics’ digital reggae-dub comes in different colors throughout many influences, completing the best of their know-how, with the spontaneousness of the collaboration & human experience.

The two producers and dub pioneers, Steve Vibronics & Martin Nathan, almost transplant their respective studios on stage, for a performance that is anything but a confrontation, competition or other kind of battle. What we are talking about here is more like a sharing and pooling the know-how of two artists with distinct sensibilities, not rised against one another, but symbiotically serving an aesthetics, a feeling, an (hi)story.
Once again, here is all about struggling against the operated machines’ rigour, to strike back with a reggae-dub, sometimes slick, then distorted, hypnotic and repetitive, yet always surprising, with the help of tenebrous reverbs, unlikely echoes and daring mixes that made their live sessions a success in the past 15 years.

Vibronics’ style is also here truly identified through the appearance of the two vocalists Madu Messenger & M Parvez, whose so characteric & complementary voices, embody the concept of this collaboration: a reflection based around the British-Caribbean and Franco-African soldiers’ experience during the first world war.

Finally, even if each aspect seems to have been considered and jewelled upstream, if nothing seems to have been left to chance, a certain fragility remains however, reflecting all the joint spontaneousness, and constantly reminding us that this project is definitely atypical and inherently ephemeral.

References : Dour Festival, Reggae Geel, Fusion Festival, Seasplash Festival, UNOD Weekender, Télérama Dub Festival, Riddim Collision Festival, …

 

« Empire Soldiers », Brain Damage meets Vibronics original creation, has been labelled by the French government Mission in charge of the commemorations marking the Centennial of the First World War.
www.centenaire.org

Background info :

« In many ways the First World War is still seen as a white mans war, but it was a ‘world war’. The European empires had to utilise all of their resources during the conflict, including the manpower of their colonies.
More then eight and half million men fought for Britain and of these nearly three million came from the colonies with India supplying approximately 1.5 million men. Even the Caribbean islands of Britain West Indies,Empire Soldiers pic2 with their small populations, mustered some 15,000. France was able to call on some 170,000 of her African colonial troops many of them coming from Senegal, some 30,000 would be killed in action.
The French had no problem using their black colonial troops in combat roles, for the British it was a different matter. A very strict racial policy was followed e.g. Indian troops were seen as having a good fighting spirit and served as combat troops. Though some West Indians troops would be involved in fighting in the Middle East, the majority of them would serve, along with some 140,000 Chinese, as members of labour battalions. These unsung soldiers were the backbone of the armies; at times working in horrendous conditions they moved supplies, dug trenches, laid railway and communication lines, built and mended the roads that took men to the front lines.
This album was created to tell the other half that is seldom told and stands as a testament to the colonials of colour who served during the Great War of 1914-18. »

[ Madu Messenger – 2013 ]