Listening to Dub Trio is like training for a marathon with interval runs—sprint for one minute; jog for two. Dynamic instrumentals fluctuate between a brutal sonic punch in the face and chill drum-and-bass breakdowns whose patterns shift with every live show. n

The experience doesn’t quite jibe with the Brooklyn three-piece’s name, which they admit is misleading and even a bit inhibiting insofar as they might gain or lose potential listeners with one red-flag word.

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Dub.

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Most people conflate dub with reggae, unhip to the genre’s wide-reaching influence. Dub Trio drummer Joe Tomino blames the media, record stores, DJs, industry heads—basically anyone responsible for packaging and disseminating music to the masses.

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“You have to classify it as something and you have to sell it to the people as something they know. It’s branding that [movers and shakers] had to stick with,” Tomino says, adding that the history is much too complicated and far-reaching to fit under a nice corporate-rigged umbrella.

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“Dub is the original remix. You can essentially dub out anything.”

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So while dub started out as mostly instrumental remixes of reggae recordings, it evolved into a platform for other genres including electronic, punk and hip-hop—the latter of which essentially works off a template of the original Jamaican style. Where DJs toast over dub remixes of reggae recordings, emcees rap over dubbed-out hip-hop recordings. Somewhere along the way, however, a musical tradition got lost in translation.

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Dub Trio aren’t trying to school audiences on the significance of dub, but after hearing their experimental fusion of dub, electronic, punk, metal, jazz and ambient music listeners might be inclined to track down some Lee Scratch Perry or, as Tomino suggests, King Tubby.

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Tubby and Perry helped reignite Tomino’s longstanding passion for dub—and subsequently that of his band mates DP Holmes and Stu Brooks. He brought some mix-tapes on tour, played them alongside albums by Boards of Canada, Squarepusher and other electronic-influenced bands. Soon, the band started taking dub riddims to the bass line and the beat, slowly nudging, pulling, tweaking and pushing their way into a new groove.

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The resulting instrumentals feed off guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and a slew of effects pedals, many of which keep breaking or disappearing.

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Tomino controls various samples and interludes with controls attached to his drum pads. Holmes runs his guitar pedals through the drums, as did Brooks until one of the group’s space echoes was lost or stolen in a Paris airport.

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“It’s real cyclical—everyone controlling everyone,” Tomino says.

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It’s all part of the band proudly operating as a democracy. Much of their success can be chalked up to their overwhelming consensus to pass on a lead singer—the archetypal diva and cause of many infamous musical divorces.

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“We like to keep it equal. Everyone has their own responsibilities, not only musically but on a frequency level. When you see a show, our tones are always changing for whatever the music calls for. We try to give the music what it wants—maintain its honesty and integrity,” Tomino says.

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It follows that Dub Trio won’t settle on just any label to release their music. They aren’t actively seeking representation for their fourth LP—the follow-up to Another Sound Is Dying (2007) which they released on Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings—since it’s still basically just a zygote. They’d love to work again with Patton, who brought them on as his backing band for Peeping Tom—and they’d loooove to collaborate with Ipecac artist Kid 606—but they’re keeping their options open.

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“To do it on our own would be great but the logistics of that are just not financially feasible these days,” Tomino says. For a group that’s been on the road a collective nine months this year trying to get their name out, the first priority is making rent on apartments they rarely see.

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Tomino hopes this current United States tour might be an improvement on the last one. Dub Trio is huge in Europe. OK, maybe not huge, but overseas audiences certainly show them more love than crowds back home.

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“Europe is really good to us. We’ve made more money over there,” he says. “I love our U.S. fans and they’re diehard but there aren’t as many in the short amount of touring that we’ve done overseas.”

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Dub Trio’s last Salt Lake City show attracted around 50 people. Let’s give them a better turnout this time around, eh? Be a real American hero.

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DUB TRIO
nThe Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Saturday, Nov. 29, 10 p.m. 24Tix.com