Liondub International, born on the foundations of original reggae music, primarily hones in on roaring jungle and drum and bass but occasionally swerves into 140 bpm and dancehall territories. The label was founded by DJs and producers DJ Liondub and Marcus Visionary in 2008. Over the years Liondub International operated from Brooklyn, Toronto, London and Kingston (Jamaica) but is now run solely by Liondub in New York City. The label joins the dots between sub-labels Blacklion Movements, Liondub Street Series, Liondub-ODT Muzik and Liondub45. Liondub International has seen releases from artists including: Bladerunner, DJ Hybrid, Serial Killaz, Aries, Bou, Macky Gee, Euphonique, Jayline, Sub Killaz and Riko Dan.
Review: One of the most iconic voices in dancehall and jungle, Blackout JA continues to demonstrate his mic craft with his brand new album on Liondub International. Written in collaboration with the label bossman Liondub and boasting a truly epic rollcall of collaborators from Top Cat to Congo Natty, Daddy Freddy to Ricky T, the album flexes the full soundsystem spectrum featuring all flavours of dubwise and dancehall influences. Laced together with Blackout's signature smoky storytelling, highlights include the dramatic skanks of 'Love You Want Stop', the feel good swagger and switchy breaks of 'Mama Nature' and the real-talking finale romp 'Son Of Nanny' which brings the album together with pure fire. 10,000 feet and still rising, Blackout JA knows no limits.
Review: After years of singles, specials, EPs and features on a wide array of respected reggae and dancehall imprints, long time Liondub International soldier Capital D serves up his debut studio album A To Zed. Working closely with producers Rumble and Ricky Trooper, the Latin American MC goes in deep covering a number of topics and an even wider range of riddims. Highlights across this accomplished body of work include the big swing sizzles of 'War Time' the lavish skanks of 'Dem Bumbo' and a brand new twist on his tried and tested party tune 'Never Test VIP'. Full flavours.
Review: The Liondub International team seem to have a lit the touch paper this year, with their recent run of futuristic dubwise delights being one of the most enjoyable collections across the world of new school reggae. This time around, they welcome the explosive vocal ability of Blackout JA inside for 'Take Time', a dancefloor-ready march, doused in sizzling sub power and new school drum processing. This is a tune that is going to cause a fair few dances to turn up, with the full release also including a powerful dub mix, diving further into the hard hitting bassline action, catchy chord progressions and silky overall processing which sets the Liondub production parameters a level higher than their nearby competition. Fuego!
Review: It's always good to see new heat land from the Liondub International crew, this time welcoming Jinx In Dub and Bluntskull inside for a vibrant 8 track set, opening up alongside Suku for the fiery hook lines of 'Wicked', followed closely grizzly bass intertwines and crunchy percussive influences of 'Bim Bam' alongside Bay-C. Collaboration is clearly a big theme on this project, opening up further with Cheshire Cat jumping into play with the classic hip hop drum drives and syncopated chords of 'Hotta Hotta', before Skarra Mucci takes us back to the 90's with a super smooth roller in 'Listen To Me Now'. The basslines only increase in intensity as we move forward, with Daddy Freddy then unleashing a monstrous vocal on 'To The Top', followed by Blackout JA & Rafeelya joining forces for the more softened arrangements of 'Turn Up The Music'. Finally, two hard hitting rollers, firstly seeing Capital D deliver a tidy chopped up vocal line on the skip-inspiring rhythms of 'Blaze Up', before Natty Campbell's toasted vocal additions on 'None Ah Dem' see the project out in style. Fire from start to finish!
Review: Blackout JA & Liondub return as 'Blacklion Movements' to present the 10th single from their 'Love Dancehall' LP series. Blackout Jah and Blakkamoore link up with Dancehall Godfather Johnny Osbourne, Liondub and Jugganaut for this powerful jam that celebrates two massive reggae standards - Steelie & Clevie's classic 'Skylarking riddim' and Johnny Osbourne's 'Keep Rising'. Expect nothing but lyrical fire as the two mic-men weave and bob between each other over the beats. For added creativity jump on the riddim track. Plenty of skylarking to be done here... Rise up!
Review: It's been a hot minute since we last saw a brand new dancehall project that excited us as much as this one as Blackout JA teams up with Liondub International for a twelve track selection, channeling dancehall music into 2021. The list of collaborators for this one is the first thing that stands out for us, with the likes of Daddy Freddy, Ranking Joe, Blakkamoore, Echo Minott, Sophia May, YT, Ricky T & a bag more all getting involved with wicked contributions. It's an album that represents why dancehall still holds a key place in dance music in 2020. There are a couple of clear highlights for us across this release, with 'Love Dancehall' alongside Navigator & Sophia May being a really cool throwback to the original toasted dancehall sound, followed up by the super crunchy arrangements of 'Hidden Truth' with Souls Liberation providing a perfect outro track.
Review: NY x TO x JA! The international link up continues as Marcus Visionary and Liondub hook up once again under their Rumble alias. Recent beats have been graced by young upcoming talents whereas their latest workout "Sound Gangsta" has been created especially for a man that is somewhat of a veteran and legend in the game; Red Fox. The Jamaica raised New York resident has a breathless flow and a unique talent for effortlessly switching tones, flows and dynamics. All of his skills are on show for this one.
The A side Dancehall mix gives an interesting polished production take on Rumble's brand of dancehall with plenty of contemporary rap and hip hop influences. Think Mr. Collipark meets Tarik "Rvssian" Johnston.
Liondub's signature sounds are evident in the NYC mix, which swaps claps for snares and the modern polished sounds are swapped for stripped back for old school New York HipHop sounds in a constantly fluctuating 8 bar dancehall form. There is a tasty jungle mix that time stretches the vocal and synth hook and under lays it with booming sub bass and rattling tribal beats. Red Fox's slowed flow sits perfectly on top of jungle beats which probably tells you that all these dance promoters like Jungle Mania are missing a trick not booking him! There is a whole set of instrumental mixes for when you have vocalists on set and we are looking forward to hip hop and dancehall vocalists jumping on these for freestyles and ciphers over the next few months.
Review: Jungle dons from over the Atlantic Liondub & Marcus Visionary are finally back in the studio producing under their Rumble alias, creating riddims to showcase talented vocalists from NY to JA. The result is the infectious Skandal Bag Riddim which is toasted to a cinder by Blackout JA for the ganja tribute track "weed weed". The bin busting sub bass of the jungle mix is bound to get pulses racing as the offbeat skank lends itself perfectly to the tempo change. Both instrumental versions are strong enough to hold their own in any soundcash, with bass hooks that you wil be humming all the way through your 20 sack.
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