Bristol: the birthplace of trip-hop — and possibly Banksy? — thanks to groups like Smith & Mighty, Massive Attack, Portishead and others. Here, one of dublab’s earliest guests drops an excellent, raw, rough around the edges mix of ’90s trip-hop, D&B, electronic dub and downtempo beats, threaded through with island musics and international sounds. After the session, stick around for an interview with the Smith & Mighty crew led by dublab’s original main man Frosty.

At the time of recording, the group — consisting of Rob Smith, Ray Mighty and Peter Rose — had actually been DJing together since 1985, and had eventually started the label Three Stripe Records, but in 1999 they were supporting only their second full-length release following years of singles and EPs, touring for Big World Small World album on !K7.

FROM THE VAULTS is an ongoing curation project produced by Ben Sinclair, resurfacing rare live performances and DJ sets recorded during dublab’s first ten years.

bensinclair1@gmail.com