19/08/2007

Heal Me album due for release

It is four years since Salmonella Dub released their last album proper, the multi platinum selling One Drop East. One may well wonder what they have been up to? Rest assured, rest they have not.

Since 2003 the band have played over 300 shows across ten countries taking with them an armoury of their favourite up and coming Australasian acts. In the process they have released the follow up CD/DVD’s UK Remixes & Radio Cuts, Mercy, the 12” vinyls of Ez On and Nu Steppa and their very first recordings from 1993 Dub For Straights.

Back at home Salmonella Dub continued at the same relentless pace producing and launching the Dub Conspiracy CD compilation and Australasian tours showcasing up and coming “Live Roots/Dance acts” from NZ, Australia and the UK (Kora, Semper Fi, Budspells, Cornerstone Roots, Concord Dawn with Scribe, Digital & YT etc) as well as co hosting four extremely successful Kaikoura Roots Festivals, featuring the likes of the John Butler Trio, Holly, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Whirimako Black, Resin Dogs, but to name a few.

So it was in October 2006 after an exhausting 24 date tour across Australia the UK and Ireland that the band finally vowed to circle the wagons and put their own creativity first by hunkering down to focus on their Kaikoura studio and their next album(s). The first result in this creative process is their 6th album proper Heal Me.

Heal Me is an 11 track vocally lush, musically seamless, horn laden, long player featuring the bands hallmark heavy rhythm section layered with Salmonella Dub psychedelic colourings. Although deeply rich in dub texturing Heal Me is different from previous Salmonella Dub releases in that it is the bands first fully developed vocal album. This is not to say Heal Me lacks the spaciousness of the bands previous more instrumental releases. On the contrary the album breathes with the space of the Southern Alps. Tracks like Gifts and Love Sunshine and Happiness are traditional in the bands heavy rock steady dub & reggae styles. Others like That Easy, Rong and Lightning are seeped in dub/rock harking back to the bands roots. Nothing is Free is the heaviest of the dub tracks while the title track Heal Me is unashamedly 80’s in its funk influences.

Heal Me was recorded in the bands Hapuku studio in Kaikoura over 2006 and 2007 and was produced and co-arranged by David Harrow in his Workhouse studio in Los Angeles. David Harrow famous for his production work for Adrian Sherwood’s ONU sound label has previously worked with the band on their THC Winter, Calming of the Drunken Monkey and Killervision releases.

The CD version of Heal Me will be released with a limited run bonus disc called the Heal me Tonic featuring four extra mixes plus a slide show of studio antics. The digital release of the CD through iTunes has an exclusive version of the bands recent cover of the Stranglers “Peaches”. The digital release through Vodafone has an exclusive add on of the ambient accapella version of Nothing is Free.

Expect to see select shows from Salmonella Dub in Aotearoa over October and in Australia in November. The band is holding off touring in force until completing their tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in February 2008. In the meanwhile they are heading back into their studio to commence work on their next album.

Find out more about the album in the discography