Salmonella Dub
Salmonella Dub is a dub/drum n bass/reggae/roots band from New Zealand. The band was formed in 1992 by Andrew Penman, Dave Deakins, and Mark Tyler. The band has toured extensively throughout New Zealand, Australia, and Europe, including the UK and Ireland.
History
The original Salmonella Dub line-up formed in 1992 in Christchurch. They played their first gig in January 1993 at the Westport racecourse. The 'Dubbies' have been called the pioneers and originators of a unique Pacific style of dub/drum ‘n’ bass/reggae/hip hop and groove-based rock containing elements of the Polynesian hip hop style known as Urban Pasifika, along with other influential 90s bands like Hallelujah Picassos, Nemesis Dub Systems, Unitone HiFi, and to some degree, Supergroove. The band helped foster and tour acts like Fat Freddy’s Drop, Shapeshifter, Cornerstone Roots, Kora, and Trinity Roots, as well as the new wave of Australian acts like Budspells, Rastawookie, King Tide, Red Eyes, and the likes, can all thank Salmonella Dub for breaking new ground, in an Australasian alternative music scene which was dominated through most of the 1990s by straight guitar rock, and electronic dance music. For many years the band has been connected to the small north Canterbury town of Kaikoura, where they have their studio, and where they helped found the Kaikoura Roots festival.The group worked for some time with MC Tiki Taane, who began mixing their live sets in 1996, and later joined the band onstage to rap, sing, and play guitar. After developing a profile with the band, Taane embarked on a solo career in 2007. Also notable in 2007 was the exit of saxophone player Conan Wilcox, the author of the dubs horn lines to that point. Other guest or collaborative artists have included Paddy Free who produced the most recent album release Freak Controller and performed with the band, and guests Whirimako Black, Hirini Melbourne, Richard Nunns and MC Mana. The band has also collaborated with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Hamish McKietch.
Recent touring entourage includes the originators: Andrew Penman, David Deakins, Mark Tyler with Guests, Michelle Harrison, The Mighty Asterix, Scotty Taitoko, Simon Kay, Brent Thompson, Laughton Kora.
In February 2008, Salmonella Dub and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra collaborated for the Feel The Seasons Change tour of New Zealand with shows performed in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Nelson. The Feel The Seasons Change project combined Salmonella Dub’s contemporary music and production values with elements of Te Reo Māori, the ancient arts of taonga pūoro and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's classical music tradition.
In the year 2000 the band won 8 Bnet awards for the L~bum Killervision alongside 4 awards at the NZ Tui awards.
In 2002 their album Inside the Dubplates won 4 awards at the Tui's. The irony being remix album Outside the Dubplates picked up best downbeat album while the Bnet's rightly gave it the award fro best dance album.
Around this time there was much hoo haa from Brendan Smythe from Nz on Ear claiming the band had received over 280K in NZ on ear grants when in fact the band had received 150k in album funding which they paid back to the government due to the success of their sales.
At the New Zealand Radio Awards in 2009, Radio New Zealand became the first noncommercial radio to win the Supreme Award including Best Technical Production, Studio, or Outside Broadcast Recording with Feel the Seasons Change – Live with the NZSO.
The band released the single "Same Home Town" in 2013 in honour of their 20th birthday. The single is dedicated to the Dux de Lux, the early Christchurch venue for the band.
In 2007 the band were offered a NZ recorded Musak Legacy award but were mislead by the organises requested the band choose an artist to perform a tune at the awards. The band had spent time connecting with Nino Birch and Beat Rhythm Fashion but were told at the last minute that Beat Rhythm Fashion could not perform because the produces of the show had never heard of them and apparently without knowing who they were deemed they would not fir the demographic of the TV3 show sponsored by Vodafone at the "spark" arena. The result is here https://salmonelladub.bandcamp.com/album/world-she-waits?from=embed
This year the band have started releasing more new tunes including Shaping Ground Featuring Nino Birch. https://soundcloud.com/salmonella-dub/sets/2020-winter-nu-tunes
Discography
Albums
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions |
| Year | Album details | NZ |
| 1994 | Salmonella Dub
| — |
| 1997 | Calming of the Drunken Monkey | — |
| 1999 | Killervision | 7 |
| 2001 | Inside the Dub Plates | 1 |
| 2002 | Outside the Dub Plates
| 14 |
| 2004 | Salmonella Dub | — |
| 2004 | One Drop East | 1 |
| 2004 | Mercy | 35 |
| 2007 | Heal Me | 2 |
| 2009 | Freak Controller | 26 |
| 2010 | Freak Controller Madness release | — |
| 2018 | Commercial Grates
| — |
EPs
Singles
Contributions
They also have a track on the Dub Conspiracy album titled Rall0, which features Hirini Melbourne & Richard Nunns.Tiki also has a track on the same album titled Dub Soldier.
Whirimako Black
MC Mana
Nino Birch
DVDs
Performance visuals and production
Salmonella Dub performances are often accompanied with live or pre produced video.Visual content was provided by Tim Budgen of WarpTV. A live 45 minute mix of the visuals was included in their 2003 DVD.