Return of DJs who started it all

By SCOTT KARA


The strange music booming and crackling from the speakers ripples the loose skin on your kneecaps. It sounds like the record is scratched beyond repair, but somehow it sounds good.

It's the early 90s at Taki Rua Depot - a small theatre-cum-live music venue tucked down a seedy alley off Wellington's Cambridge Tce - and the Roots Foundation Sound System are educating the masses about roots, reggae, ragga, and dub.

Like many in this smoky room I'm witnessing not only new music but a new way to experience music - in New Zealand, at least. I'd never heard anything like it. Bob Marley, Eddy Grant and Herbs didn't count.

Now, roots and dub are mainstays on the national music scene thanks to bands like TrinityRoots, Salmonella Dub and Fat Freddy's Drop.

You could say the Roots Foundation - this country's longest running DJ collective, made up of selectors Mu (Chris Faiumu), DJ Koa (Koa Williams), Goosebump (John Pell), and Lemon (Danny Scotsford), along with Auckland's Stinky Jim, Tuffy Culture, and Mighty Asterix among others - was where it all started.

It's been 12 years since the sound system formed, and tonight they bring their knee-rippling bass to Auckland's Safari Lounge.

Mu remembers Lemon putting on a gig at the Car Park on Willis St sometime in 1992.

"I went along and it was the first time I'd ever seen a DJ bring in such a huge sound system. I couldn't believe it. It sounded great."

Sharing a love of reggae and dub, the four DJs decided to start running parties.

Mu convinced the owners of Taki Rua to hold the Roots Foundation nights at the venue on weekends when plays weren't scheduled. They've been happening - albeit a little less frequently in recent years - at venues around New Zealand ever since.

"Back then you couldn't go out and hear underground, alternative sounds [of reggae and dub]. It was at a time when [British dub label] On-U Sound was fresh," says Mu.

"On-U Sound took the whole idea from early Jamaican sound systems ... On-U was big and we were really into that. It was all about sonic presence."

In the early days, Mu confesses, he was still learning a lot about early Jamaican music recorded at Studio One, and the works of reggae artists like Johnny Osbourne and the Abyssinians.

"Apart from Lemon, the tracks we played were just records that we could find, and then through listening to Lemon's sets it definitely grew to be a lot more underground.

"Lemon led us down the path of digging a little deeper and finding those early Studio One cuts. You know, I was into the sound when I first started but I didn't know who Studio One were."

Over the years the Roots Foundation nights have become more diverse. While Lemon still concentrates strictly on roots, the other three delve into styles that are offshoots of reggae, including everything from old-school jungle from the early 90s to the "very deep house out of Germany", which uses a lot of reggae basslines.

Mu believes the diversity of the nights is a "Kiwi thing" because sound systems in Jamaica and Britain tend to stay specific to certain styles.

"What I have found is a lot of the big cities overseas, that have more of a music history than we do, are very specialist. They don't seem to be interested in crossing over into other genres of music.

"Over here I don't think New Zealanders have as long a music history as the big cities and we're happy to be a melting pot of all these different influences and play them all in one night.

"We definitely start the night off with Lemon for two hours of roots but we take it to a few different places and make it a bit of a journey, and then usually come back to Lemon at 5am to finish it off."

If there's one thing a Roots Foundation night is, it's a journey. And a long one. Set aside a whole night and prepare to see the sunrise.

* Mu's band, Fat Freddy's Drop, has a new single out next month and will release their debut studio album early next year.

Performance

*Who: Roots Foundation Sound System

*What: Year 12

*Where and when: Safari Lounge, Ponsonby Rd, tonight