Electroïd Dub-Trotters and genuine wizard apprentices in terms of massive vinyl sampling, sound effects dub alchemy, new electronic fiddlings and cascading hip hop scratching... The High Tone brothers have been travelling with nonchalance and total freedom since the beginning of the digital era through paths of nowadays music (novo & live dub, jungle, drum'n'bass, techno transe etc.) always searching for the right frequencies : low & high tones ! and of course preserving the heat of the sounds. And so, the adventures of the "club of the 5" from Croix Rousse (Lyon, France) started in 1997, while free parties were flowering all across Europe as they became part of a new solidarity scene in a joyful frenzy (with friends Kaly, Meï Teï Shô and le Peuple de l'Herbe among many).
After several auto-produced EPs, the band bounced on the year 2000's bug to release their 1st album named Opus Incertum, already on indie label Jarring Effects which has been with them up till today cleverly accompanying High Tone on the road of complete artistic freedom. Their music was soon qualified as Ethno Dub simply to avoid all series of metaphysical and media questions... and High Tone straight away placed as the spearhead of the French dub scene (with Improvisators Dub and Zenzile). A scene that was to renew the genre through a new live version of " dub " in opposition to its British elder sister which was dominated by the reign of machines in studios always more eager for remixes (CF the famous On U Sound et consorts). From electronic escapades to roots sonic vibrations underlined by unique video projections, High Tone have since then continually re-invented their music reaching today far beyond the simple area of dub.
With the club of the 5 "technichians" (videos, sounds, lights and politics...), the fellows are today a ten-piece like the fingers on two clenched fists ! to expand this will to always musically go further, at the risk of disturbing their audience, which has grown exponentially given that the band have sold more than 100 000 records, all formats included... Just the time has come to once again go on stages of the whole world to share their music with a faithful and always renewed audience, the band release today their 3rd album called " wave digger " and recorded by rude boy and magician Jean-Pierre Spirly. A multi-faceted record (electro, hip hop, jungle, funk, dub of course and so much more...) which seems to resonate in 3D thanks the spatialisation of sounds made possible with a devilishly clever use of reverbs and panoramics, definitely not just another High Tone album, following the phantasmagoric Live opus (Jarring Effects / Pias) which had already been quite a feat at the time in 2003. Beyond the production and samples profusion tour-de-forces, the 5 piece keep experimenting in music as had been announced by their electronic collaboration with Chinese composer Wang Leï on the stage of Eurockéennes (July '04). Nothing more logical for these electroïd dub-trotters, unsatisfied "melomaniacs" and always eagerly searching for the latest trendy sounds all around the globe... In the universe of high frequencies, may one day the story of the wave diggers come to your sound system...
Laurent Zine
