Lil Obeah goes with Industrial dub from Transylvania to the USA in Texas

Lil Obeah goes with Industrial dub from Transylvania to the USA in Texas

Collage by Andrei Bucureci

Lil Obeah and Sound of Art to Come have now partnered with US-based label Emergency Hearts. Everyday Is Halloween, the artists last album, is being digitally distributed worldwide by the Texas label and there is a new remix by Voodoo Slinky out for the Everyday Is Halloween collaboration with rappers Time and Extra Kool.

Bucureci Obeah is a curator, musicologist, art director, dub poet, music artist and producer and also an entrepreneur with decades of experience in radio, music & visual art. His portfolio includes multi-media projects Creionetica, Tunesinourheads, Abator Industries, Crowd Control, Black Rhino Music & Radio & A4Activism. Bucureci was a collaborator of Radio Guerrilla, Electronic Beats by Telekom and is a graduate of architecture, art & design.

Sound of Art to Come Records is his Transylvanian platform & record label, where dub, industrial, post-punky reggae, hip-hop, electronic & experimental artists from all over the world are brought together. From the heart of Romania, they offer a monthly transmission of art through a unique selection of artworks, collages, music & remixes inspired by the intersection of Pop Art, multi-culturalism & horror soundtracks.

Sound of Art to Come have partnered with the UK-based NGO/ label from Lancashire – Wormhole World, to put out their artists catalog on CD in the UK & surrounding areas and connect their audience with dub, industrial, post-punky reggae, experimental music.

Sound of Art to Come have partnered with the US-based anarchist label from Austin Texas – Emergency Hearts to put out Lil Obeah releases and remixes in the States and engage their forward thinking American audience.

Inspired by his mentors, Rodion G.A. & Mark Stewart of The Pop Group & The Maffia, after ten years of making eclectic fusion music, Lil Obeah from Transylvania has tuned-in to another frequency. When it comes to his sound, he defines it as duppy dub world music from a parallel universe. Obeah works with professionals in the music business, Bucharest-based producers Marius Costache of Studio148 & Petru Barladeanu and international veteran world music producers Tim Whelan & Hamid Mantu of Transglobal Underground and much-missed dub master Nick „Count” Dubulah of Dub Colossus. 

His remix work includes local artists, international sound clashers like Lee Scratch Perry & Dubokaj, Algiers & Zack de la Rocha, Dubmatix, Dub Pistols, Prince Fatty, Ghetto Priest, Transglobal Underground, Dub Colossus, The Membranes, Denise Sherwood, Yann Tiersen, scott crow, Oigăn & Ana Ularu, Nico G & Kali & Shabbos Ranks. 

He is inspired by the strangest Romanian sounds, ranging from weird experimental authentic local dub to traditional reggae-dub with ska and folk-rock influences, music, and records released near the Black Sea from the 1960s to the present.

Without any live performances Obeah’s music was played all over the world by legends like Dennis Bovell, Steve Barker and Don Letts on: BBC 6 Music, BBC Lancashire, Soho Radio, ResonanceFM, The Music Galaxy Radio, Radio Buena Vida, Australia’s National Roots’n’Reggae Show, Culture Dub from Poitiers, Berlin’s Zonic Radio, Poland’s Czwórka and Belgium’s Dub Front.

Dub music and Obeah art has constantly clashed with industrial rock, metal, tribal & hip-hop. The sounds of Killing Joke, Mark Stewart & The Maffia, Tackhead & Adrian Sherwood, Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Alien Sex Fiend, Meat Beat Manifesto, Pop Will Eat Itself and their concepts have been a longtime inspiration to Obeah & Marius Costache.

Nothing is more blood pumping than life in the post-industrial, post-communist Carpathian mountains. So it was only natural for Lil Obeah to launch his third album Everyday Is Halloween on Halloween and dedicate it to the sound of industrial dub-reggae. This Marius Costache of Studio148 produced album features collaborations with Denver rappers Time & Extra Kool, who share Lil Obeah’s passion for horror films & soundtracks, Vilnius based producer, bass player Boris Kulenovic of Mei Tei Sho fame, currently in Afrodelic, UK Dancehall MC Horseman aka Winston Williams on drums frequent Mad Professor collaborator, Peter Harris collaborator of Lee Scratch Perry on bass, guitar, backing vocals, Fritz Catlin of 23 Skidoo on percussion, bow bass and Alexandru Stoica of Anton Pann Ensemble on oud.

Obeah considers Dub music sound art and aims to create a forever authentic Transylvanian horror film soundtrack with his songs and remixes.

eMERGENCY heARTS is an anarchist-run indie collaborative media hub in Austin, TX that spotlights post-punk, outsider and non-genre specific music, sounds and visual arts that floats our fancy from the past until today.

Founded by author, musician and art dealer scott crow (Lesson Seven, Audio Assault, corporatE unclE), the vision is for music and other media to build an umbrella entity that supports artists, outside the mainstream where they can collaborate and experiment across artistic disciplines in a society that often devalues culture makers outside of the mainstream.

They license and release vintage and new music as well as arts across various mediums (books, visual arts, video) that they find engaging or culturally valuable, or just bring joy.

„eMERGENCY heARTS values artists and collaborators; we do our best to make sure artists are compensated fairly for their creative outputs. Emergency Hearts describes the immediacy of feelings of empathy and compassion that motivate us to act to end oppression, exploitation, and destruction. The emergency hearts are this beautiful part that drives us with both passion and compassion.  Each of our emergency hearts is the spark that compels us to action and creativity.”

– scott crow

eMERGENCY heARTS have three main areas of focus:

NuHorizons – Showcases current, and new, international electronic and experimental artists and projects and new remixes of classic outsider tracks.

eH VINTAGE – Currently showcases vintage electronic, noise, experimental and ambient music releases from 1980-2000 bringing titles into the digital age that would be lost on analog recordings.

eH MEDIA – Showcases radical book publishing projects, and the re-release of vintage and current art films and shorts.

eMERGENCY heARTS are releasing a lot of ‘vintage’ electronic and experimental music that never made it from cassettes or early CD’s to digital platforms from 1980-2000. The label seeks out, licenses and archives obscure, defunct and dead artists, projects and labels that need a 21st century re-release. Good detectives are on the case finding and contacting the artists, making sure they’re compensated.

CULTURAL ENVIRONMENTAL VISION OF EVERYDAY IS HALLOWEEN

„Capital is an abstract parasite, an insatiable vampire and zombie maker; but the living flesh it converts into dead labor is ours, and the zombie it makes are us.”

Mark Fisher

„Out here on the perimeter

Nobody can hear you scream

La-la-la-la la-la-la la-la

A dictator’s wet dream”

Mark Stewart

„I am Zombi, Ceaucescu’s wet dream.”

Obeah

Lil Obeah and Sound of Art to Come present new remixes by XQUI and for David Ness out now Wormhole World from Manchester. The XQUI remix for the Dead Of Night is taken from the Everyday Is Halloween album produced by Lil Obeah with Marius Costache and the David Ness – Hyperreal (Lil Obeah & Marius Costache remix) is a dub collaboration with the Scotland-based artist.

XQUI is an anonymous outsider electronic musician from Manchester, releasing music on the Wormhole World label.

The artist first appeared in April 2018 with his Britannia EP, which was swiftly followed by the Dragon album in May. Using field recordings which he manipulated via mobile phone and laptop, he created incredible soundscapes and was quickly compared to Brian Eno, William Basinski and Clint Mansell.

Appearing in several Albums of the Year lists over the last three years, he has also remixed and worked with numerous artists the likes of Mark Stewart, Vince Clarke, Blancmage and Neil Arthur.

XQUI is a sonic time traveler and on the Twenties album he went back one hundred years, navigating a twisted channel to the roaring Twenties. The album was labeled uncompromisingly immersive; startling; melancholic; confusing; beautiful – the rebirth of a fading spirit song of ages.

XQUI and Lil Obeah are labelmates on Wormhole World and often collaborate and soundclash to creative results.

David Ness is the founder of alternative band Nohumaneye in 1977 with Martyn Scutt and Walter Keith. Nohumaneye reformed in 2020 to release the album Age of Extinction.

David released the album Promesse du Bonheur in 2018 under the name Baba Vuk in collaboration with Park Planet maestro Graham Duff which featured reimagined Nohumaneye songs and collaborated with The Pop Group legend Mark Stewart on the Nohumaneye vs. Mark Stewart – King of the Zombies Remix EP, featuring Matthew Shaw as producer. He also collaborated with Mark Stewart and Peter Harris on the BombArt project.

David Ness released the solo album Being-Time in from which we showcase the remix of Hyperreal by Lil Obeah and Marius Costache (from The Sound of Art to Come and Studio148).

His new album The Circuit of Culture was released last year on Wormhole World and features 16-year-old Eric Ness guitar.

Leave a reply (we review all comments)