An introduction to… Roger Robinson
The dub poet opens this week’s Independent Music Podcast with a track taken from the Bokeh Allstars fundraising LP on Bokeh Versions.
I came late to Roger Robinson, and even now I have chronically low knowledge of the breadth of his work as an author and poet. Beyond the hilarious book ‘Adventures in 3D’, which I picked up at the London launch of John Doran’s incredible memoir Jolly Lad, I have not invested nearly enough time in his written work.
His music — however — is a different matter. His two LPs on the sadly hibernating German digital dub label Jahtari are amongst my favourites. Dis Side ah Town placed fourth in the wonderful-while-it-lasted Albatross Music Prize in 2015, whilst the follow-up Dog Heart City continued the theme of social commentary over Disrupt’s peerless dub production and includes the spectacular ‘Bun Bun Bun’, which is nothing short of a dub masterpiece.
Even if those two records owe a lot to Disrupt’s production, the lyrical heft of both records is undeniable, and Robinson proved it was replicable in a completely different genre, with the remarkable Americana collaboration with France-based Englishman Piers Faccini under the Horsedreamer moniker.
The lead track ‘Trigger’ is an extension of the theme throughout Robinson’s work — the changing cityscape that surrounds us and the death of community. His works often focus on surviving through an increasingly oppressive economical climate — particularly in Brixton — and Horsedreamer jauntily portrays that message via a Western, Bonnie and Clyde- motif.
It is dub where Robinson’s musical heart seems to lie, and other than Disrupt, the other contemporary master of pushing the genre forward is Kevin Martin (AKA The Bug). His collaboration with Martin as King Midas Sound is most probably his most commercially successful music venture and retains the poetical power that is so consistent through all his work.
Selected discography
Waiting for You… (with King Midas Sound) (Hyperdub, 2009)
Dis Side Ah Town (Jahtari, 2015)
Dog Heart City (Jahtari, 2017)
Solitude (with King Midas Sound) (Cosmo Rhythmatic, 2019)
The track ‘Forward’ taken from ‘Mutal Aid 2020’ is out on Bokeh Versions now
