dp3, an Atlanta-based ensemble of trumpet, drums, violin/viola (and in this case)bass/studio production by Piper Street Sound, a.k.a. Matt Mansfield, appearing here as the eponymous ‘Matty Dub Tub’, made their way into Piper Street Studios for this trippy transnational trip-hop/dub offering. Intense grooves, a rock-solid rhythm section, and hazy horns blend with PSS’s signature studio f/x, production style, and glitchy beats/synths to fill out this dark and funky EP. ‘Drip Hop’ and ‘Turkish Sunny Delight’ are more driven selections, while ‘Ashoka’s Pocket Cavalry’ and ‘Cut The Wire Don’t Pull The Trigger Chuck‘ are somewhat more laid back. All have the characteristic Piper Street Sound sound and top-notch performances by percussionist Davis Petterson, trumpeter Andrew Boring, Violinist Paul Mercer (of the Changelings) and bassist/fx/engineer Matt Mansfield.
-from the liner notes by Russ Bledsoe (Dialect Trio, Bonemeal Baker)
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dp3, (Davis Petterson Trio) was an improvisational band from Atlanta, kind of grew out of the eyedrum’s improv nights and oriented it’s self towards that kind of art/jazz thing, dp3 never really broke up but rather just softly dissolved around 2007 or so. I was asked to play bass with dp3 in 2006 by Davis after original bassist Kareem Khalifa left Atlanta to pursue his doctorate studies in philosophy. I had worked with Mr. Petterson for several years as a cook at the vegetarian restaurant Rainbow and we had played music together often since that time, sharing a rehearsal spot at Black Box and attempting to get several bands of the ground that never really quite worked out. (One band was a klezmer fusion band including an ex skinhead and one group played instrumental covers of James Brown’s music via Drums, Bass, Guitar and Vibraphone) In the midst of our attempts to get something going musically I left the country in 2003 traveling to Andalusia for a while to pursue olive farming and when I returned Davis had formed a band. Not just a band but a collection of powerhouse musicians that I knew of already from having seen at shows and such. When I was eventually asked to play with his group I was really excited for the opportunity to play with these really top notch musicians, all like 10 years older than me, escaping from years spent trying to form and play in Punk bands in the suburbs of Gwinnett County. Over the couple of years I played with them I learned a lot from each member of the group and each player had a unique completely different approach and sound, kind of like Mahavishnu Orchestra or something. Paul Mercer’s knowledge of Afghani, Persian, Arabic and Indian modes blew my mind, Andrew Boring’s structured knowledge of jazz chords and harmonic theory really pushed my walking lines to develop and Davis’ poly rhythmic multi angled drumming was like the heart of the unit, pulling my bass lines in tight against his work created a solid DEEEEP foundation for Trumpet and Viola to work on top of. Davis and I developed together a kind of Dub Reggae and Blues/RnB based playing that was heavily influenced both by Bill Laswell and by Clyde Stubblefied and Jabo Starks, but still managed to function as a movable backdrop to support Jazz and classical eastern melodic forms..boiling things down to the pentatonic to unite the various strains present. The lack of chordal instruments was a delight for us in this group and we often took advantage of this unusual format with long, completely improvised pieces that could manage to sound fluid and planned. The EP posted above was one of the first things I recorded when I was first setting up my home studio and developing the concept of Piper Street Sound. dp3 practiced weekly at my place so recording rehearsals was a great start to learning how to engineer a band. I recall the joy I felt when I first got my microphones set up and plugged into a mixing board and got Davis’ playing recording. Davis always had such great drums, with nicely tuned, new heads and I remember thinking how easy it was to get good drum sounds during this era. “Wow just point a good mic at the drums and hit record” Davis spoiled me and almost every drummer I have recorded since has taken a lot more work to capture quality takes with.
The EP that resulted from these rehearsal recordings is not a fair representation of what dp3 may have sounded like live,(if you want to hear that please check the links below) song structures are re-arranged by me, drums and melodies are looped and occasional edited, but the tones and our pulse is captured in this EP and the work represents the band being viewed through a colored smoky piece of glass. You could also think of the mixes as Experimental Dub Recreations of dp3′s tunes.
piperstreetsound
