STAND HIGH PATROL

Merry was phenomenal on the trumpet. I had never encountered someone with such mastery of the instrument till that point. He took my breath away, partially because I tried to hold my breath during one of his riffs, the same way you would when someone goes underwater in a movie. I failed miserably.

As the night progressed, Stand High continued to bring the heat as their tunes became more experimental in nature – rightly so, given that their dubadub style incorporates electronic and hip-hop influences. I watched as the crowd sang their heart out to some of their songs, an appreciation for the crew who were sweating behind the decks.

As someone who has been to many dub nights, I was interested to see the twist that Stand High has spun on the genre. Their tunes are punchy, groovy, and they know how to move a crowd. But it is different to the way that ‘meditation sessions’ do at a traditional dub night. If I had spontaneously walked into the latter half of their set, I might not have immediately known that I was at a dub night. The bass revealed the dub inspired nature of their music, but their songs expertly incorporated electronic and house elements. I guess that was the intention, though. Stand High have taken a genre that they love and mashed it up with other genres they love to make it something of their own, the way any good artist would. The evolution of music thrives in non-conformity. 

I accosted Rootystep after the set ended, asking him how he thought it went. He gave me a sleepy grin and said that it was brilliant, that the energy from the crowd was electrifying, and that he felt he’d earned his bed. That was how I felt too.