Even though 'Dub Vibrations 1 & 2' and the 'Three Little Birds' EP aren't really related, both releases show striking similarities in terms of content and the philosophy of the labels behind them, Maltese Dubkey and Belgian Reggaedub.be: both labels work according to the so-called creative-common principle, allowing artists to reach a wider audience by offering their albums as a free download, and both the 'Dub Vibrations 1 & 2' compilations on Reggaedub.be and the 'Three Little Birds' EP on the Dubkey label focus on instrumental dub with a UK stepper flavor.
The Dubkey label is an initiative of Maltese Manwel Tabone, who, in the past, among other things, already presented us with Crucial Alphonso's album debut 'Visionary Creation' (2009). The 'Three Little Brirds' EP (with twelve tracks in its track list rather an album in our opinion) is also a Belgian creation and the first release by the eponymous Three Little Birds, the alter ego of Ewoud Vandenberghe aka Skeptikal Sparrow, who cites Dougie Conscious, Aba-Shanti-I and Vibronics as his main influences and summarizes his music as "playful steppers", a description we can fully agree with. Along with a bunch of other releases, the 'Three Little Birds' EP can be found on www.dubkey.com.
The 'Dub Vibrations 1 & 2' compilations feature the work of a series of Belgian (Crucial Alphonso, Soul Remedy) and especially French (Redi, Hatman, Selektisam, High Elements, ImanSeb...) dub-producers, all presenting an instrumental track and a dub version. As mentioned earlier, both compilations are freely downloadable via Reggaedub.be, but the label, an initiative of the Brussels sound system Gamma Sound, is now also running its own web shop where dub and roots fans can satisfy their hunger for vinyl.