WOMAD

Temple Of Sound

From United Kingdom

Official website: www.templeofsound.org.uk“We like to combine the raw with the technological,” declares Neil Sparkes who is one half of Temple of Sound. Sparkes and fellow traveller Count Dubulah first combined their considerable talents as producers and songwriters in the early heyday of Transglobal Underground when they were responsible for writing and producing large chunks of the seminal ‘Dream of 100 Nations’ LP including the hit ‘International Times’. Before that Count Dubulah was a close collaborator of Mykael Riley from Steel Pulse and a lynchpin of The Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra. What bonds these two maverick creators is a broad obsession with all sorts of musical styles: Latin, reggae, African, Arabic, Asian, house, pop, hip-hop and a love of deep and depth-charged dub bass. Temple of Sound collaborated with Rizwan Muazzam Qawwali from Pakistan on the Real World album ‘People’s Colony No.1’ and with Jah Wobble on the CD ‘Shout At the Devil’, before recently releasing their own debut ‘First Edition’ on the French label Wagram. They have also remixed tracks for Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Fun-da-mental and Fatback Band amongst others. Other production and writing partners have included Natasha Atlas, Peter Gabriel, The Last Poets and Linton Kwesi Johnson. In fact Temple of Sound’s CV positively buzzes with exciting names and intriguing episodes of daredevil music adventurism. Dubulah and Sparkes, who is a poet and a painter as well as a vocalist, percussionist and songwriter, revel in wide open horizons and seemingly impossible creative challenges. But however far their imaginations roam, their music is always anchored by that raw technology and dub wise groove.