We often forget to mention the originality of the French dub scene which, contrarily to its English and Jamaican sisters, immediately privileged live music (real instruments progressively mixed with sequencing keyboards) over studio tricks. For Kaly Live Dub, as their name says it all, live music is a second nature, giving free way to their taste for new experiments, as well as their total artistic freedom and their talent for improvisation.

So it’s on stage that the group first built a solid reputation before tackling a genuine technological revolution in the last uproars of the 20th century (mainly through the use of samplers), and offering us a few masterpieces of their own. Thus, after three remarkable albums (“Electric Kool Aid” in 2000, “Hydrophonic” in 2002 et “Répercussions” released by PIAS in 2005), the group really took off, multiplying concerts and original collaborations. They wrote an album together with their cousins and next-door neighbours High Tone (“Kaltone”, Jarring Effects, 2004) and tried out on stage all sorts of sound entanglements with the trip-jazz-hop-er Erik Truffaz!

It shows how mature this collective has now become, enriching their music from side roads, and taking to the letter (and to the note) the cross-breeding of nowadays amplified musics. It hasn’t been that long though, since Kaly fed on Lee Perry and King Tubby and started trying out reggae roots on the Croix-Rousse slopes of Lyon. Faithful to its roots, the group used dub as a solid foundation, both rhythmical and intellectual, giving free way to their imagination and all sorts of sound experiments, made possible thanks to the use of infernal machines.

Avoiding media collar shackles, KLD’s music has of course a definite dub feeling, but it’s also dark and electronic, noisy and urban, even psychedelic, but essentially excessive! So no, the five Kaly-men do not wear the flag of of daddy’s festive ska-reggae... which will not prevent them from literally blowing your mind away next time you see them “On Stage”, their live CD/DVD released last year, perfectly sums up the scenic year just gone by. Strengthened by their multiple experiences and their taste for opposition, the quintet delivers today a major album (“Fragments”, Pias) teasing electro dub noise on the dark side of the force. Custom-tailored by the ineffable Fred Norguet (Pole Nord studio in Blois), this 4th opus by Kaly Live Dub invites you on an intergalactic sound trip, combining sound effects from elsewhere and nearly transcendental atmospheres to sometimes technoid in-your-face sequences.

No need to say that their music speaks for herself, and their upcoming album is going to get you stunned once again, as much as their live set.