Echo check

>> The live dubcastin' of T.O.'s Resinators

by CHRIS HATHERILL

Say the word "dub" and images of steamy Jamaican studios, smoke-filled sunshine and heavy musical madness come to mind. Add the word "Toronto" and the vision vanishes, replaced by Canadian winters, cheesy bars and watered-down roots jam bands. But when you add "band" and "the Resinators" to form "Toronto dub band the Resinators," the situation changes.

A mix of mostly dub, some rock, some electronic and then more dub, the Resinators came together through a common love of Jamaican music and a desire to continue the music's fine tradition. Far from just another band with an echo pedal, they're as close as you'll get to the real deal--complete with a monster mixing board, something called a "dubcaster" and a drummer who was born and raised in Kingston. As in, Kingston, Jamaica, not Kingston, Ontario.

"Our drummer Raffa Dean is the master," explains J-Bass, who lists his band duties simply as "low-end."

"He is on, like, every Canadian reggae album since the '70s. When Leroy Sibbles comes to Canada to play, when U-Roy comes, when Gregory Isaacs comes, they get Raffa. He's amazing, we're blessed to have him. I literally have to practice to go to practice."

With such solid backing, and four years of experience behind them, the Resinators rise to the challenge of recreating dub onstage. Like drum & bass, house and other forms of music that were born in the studio, it's hard to make dub work in a live setting. That's where a fellow known as Mountain Dred comes in.

"He plays the mixing board like it's an instrument--it is his instrument," says J-Bass. "The key to what we do is adapting the music to suit certain situations. We're trying to take dub to new places, and with Mountain Dred constantly remixing everything we're doing live, we can change everything from show to show. In Montreal and Vancouver people seem pretty friendly, but in Toronto everyone's so surly and uptight. We're trying to get through to people who have, like, 10 pitchers in them by 1 a.m., so whatever we're doing, the dub has to penetrate. It's gotta resonate."

At Quartier Latin on Friday, May 11, 10:30pm, $5