The Dub Surrection is a dub collective from the Gold Coast in Australia. Bassist and producer Brook Rees founded it to play roots dub modelled on 1970s Jamaican sound system records, the music he collects on original vinyl. The line-up brings together players from reggae, soul and jazz. Australian-Fijian drummer Lisa Purmodh has played with Damian Marley, Stephen Marley and Bunny Wailer, while the Californian soul singer Jamie Allensworth also performs with Bobby Alu. The horn section pairs trumpeters Nick Garbett and Peter Hunt with trombonist James Greening of The Melbourne Ska Orchestra.

“The Last Light The First Fire” is the first single from the band’s debut EP Heavy Weight Sound System, self-released on 21 September. The song grew out of four months Rees spent in Nishinomiya, Japan, after the pandemic. He cycled his two daughters to primary school and preschool there, listening to classic 1970s albums by Augustus Pablo and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Back home, he wrote and produced the track with co-producers Scott French and Jason Karabash. The band recorded it at LoveStreet Studios in Currumbin and The Nest in Sydney, with French playing the drum dubs live on the desk.

The track runs on a slow one-drop, with the bass up front and a three-piece horn section. Rees also plays melodica, the instrument Pablo made central to roots reggae. Over it all, Allensworth asks again and again for the fire to be lit and kept burning. In Rastafari, fire is the force that cleanses and burns away Babylon, the corrupt system the faith stands against; it also stands for spiritual strength and righteous energy. Allensworth’s plea picks up that image as a call to keep the faith and the fight going. Halfway through, the horns and guitar drop out and leave the voice over bass and kick drum until the band comes back in for the refrain.

Stream “The Last Light The First Fire” HERE and pick up Heavy Weight Sound System through THIS LINK