Wee Dub Festival @ Various Edinburgh Venues, 3-5 Feb

In February dub takes over Edinburgh as the Wee Dub Festival for a second year. Like any good sequel this time everything just got a whole lot bigger to the extent that the ‘Wee’ in the festival’s title is now just for ironic effect. The single day of last year has been expanded to three and will feature more than 15 artists across four of the city’s best venues with more than 20 hours of live music and DJs. In keeping with the new format, the festival has some locked in some big headliners, including two stalwarts of the dub scene, Mad Professor and Zion Train. The entire weekend is made up of 5 “sessions” spread across four of the old town’s venues, each of which can be attended on their own and there will also be a number of workshops (more of which later).

Recognised by many as the man responsible for taking dub music into the digital era, Mad Professor hasm quite incredibly, produced over 200 records, including No Protection, a legendary remix of Massive Attack's second album, and few hundred of his own records which are documents of the move from traditional recording equipment to the rise of the electronic in the scene which secures his status as one of the dons of dub. Zion Train seem mere babies by comparison although they have existed in various capacities for over 22 years and as a live band have been at the forefront of the dub/dance scene for over 15 years. Although the membership of the band has changed over the years Neil Perch remains at the heart of their sound and at Wee Dub he will be behind the decks proving the backdrop the band’s MCs.

Naturally, under the umbrella of dub there is a lot of unique musical territory being covered, probably none more so than Celt Islam who has the genre imposing authorities attempting all kinds of fusions such as ‘Sufi Dub’ and ‘Transnational Dubstep’. Just know this: he is sonically unique and ferociously genre blending, with the rhythms and bass influences of dubstep and drum ‘n’ bass meshed with eastern music. It wouldn’t be a dub festival without Bristol being represented in some way and the city’s seven piece group Dub Mafia will be doing exactly that with their live band/drum ‘n’ bass sound held together by Eva Lazarus’s sultry vocals. Last year they played a ton of gigs across Europe even though they have only been together a few years but they are have solid festival credential having appeared at Glastonbury last year and the world’s biggest d‘n’b festival in Croatia, The Outsider. The festival will also be featuring sets from two Glasgow’s brands, reggae dancehall legends Mungo’s Hi-Fi and the eight piece ska collective Esperanza as well hosting Polish dubstep/reggae producer and DJ Radikal Guru.

Not only has the festival has grown into a full blown weekender but it is no longer just confined to the clubs. A limited number of weekend ticket holders will get access to a Mad Professor workshop on Sun 5 Feb as he explains his life in dub and the its history, from the earliest beginnings to current dubstep movement. As he says there is “nothing new about dubstep, just new people interested!” If you can’t get your hands on those tickets then try the totally free set of workshops, film screenings, live music and food and goods stalls on Sat 4 Feb at the Out of the Blue Drillhall where you can see what happens when belly dancing meets dub, learn how to build a speaker and let kids experiment with music in the ‘Dub Zone’.