Vibronics
June 15th, 2007 by sparky
It was the joint discovery of the Aba-Shanti-I Sound System and digitally sequenced music that first inspired Steve Vibronics to try his hand at building dub tunes. A minimal studio was put together at home during 1995 using the most basic of equipment – a dilapidated 16 track mixer, reverb and echo units, a couple of synths and an Atari computer – all mixed down onto cassette tape. One such tape was given to Aba-Shanti-I after one of his legendary sessions at the Arches in Vauxhall, London.
By the next dance it had been cut onto dub-plate and the sounds of Vibronics were unleashed in the form of the thunderous ‘Universal Love’, and since those early days Vibronics have maintained strong links with Roots Sound Systems.
The Vibronics sound was introduced to UK dub pioneers Zion Train in 1996, and so begun a fruitful relationship with their ‘Universal Egg’ label that lasts to the present day. Deep Root (a subsidiary of Universal Egg, dealing strictly with roots 7"s) unleashed ‘Jah Light Jah Love’, and 1998 saw Vibronics team up with dub activist Jah Free for the ‘Outernational Dub Convention’ album.
Soon, talk between Steve and Richi was beginning to turn toward starting their own record label. The SCOOPS label was created whilst on tour, on long, long journeys between venues in France in late 2000. The success of the first 12" led to SCOOPS becoming one of the UK’s most reputable nu-roots labels.
