The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards

The Flying Lizards’ David Cunningham “remixes” unreleased source material recorded by Jah Lloyd. Cunningham recalls the process taking a long time and working on it as a sort of “indulgence” on weekends and evenings outside of other projects: “I began to invent (or perhaps re-invent) techniques of editing, looping, filtering and subtraction to deal with unremixable mono material.” Originally released on CD-only in 1996 years after The Flying Lizards disbanded, the resulting “Secret Dub Life” is something like an avant-garde post-punk dub album in the sense that Cunningham basically invents his own approach and vocabulary to dub mixing and production. While some of the genre’s traditional techniques are there (echo, reverb, filters), the way that Cunningham employs them is quite unusual and perhaps closer in approach to Minimalism (tape experimentation, looping, and feedback) or even musique concrète than to King Tubby or Scientist. Of course, it’s crucial to note that the source material Cunningham works with here is fantastic, and it’s a shame the original players remain unidentified.

Recommended – Full Listen