
This page is dedicated to the immediate bedroom recordings of DUBAIS. 


DUBAIS was formed in a bathroom in Antwerp as homage to all past representations, meditations, or predictions of future utopias, states of being, and technologies. The city of Dubai stood as a metaphor or representation of what the new modern Middle East could be; a place of great economic wealth, abundance, culture, and futuristic architecture on land or in sea (palm island.) Now, 45 years after the discovery of its rich oil fields, Dubai still stands, but is demystified of its past expectations.  It is these moments of expectation that shape our understanding of time and development. How do these moments morph as time passes? What once was a mystery is now a memory, even if the mystery was never solved.
My original intent for this project was based in a series of rules and regulations, reflective of my conceptual concerns. First of all, no instruments could be used. Only drones,blips, beeps, generated by my cell phone or consumer grade programs like Garageband, and samples taken from either Space disco of the late 70s or break-beats from the early 80s. Now it has expanded and changed. My interest is still in not exclusively using instrumentation to write/arrange songs. I also use video clips to generate the arrangements and tempo. I use memories, Billy Strayhorn, psychoanalysis and cultural heart ache to determine lyrical content. Although DUBAIS exists as a band, it really exists more as a vehicle in which I can explore multidimensional compositional strategies through a displaced cultural lens.
I often think of the state of music now. I think of what my expectations of music, especially punk music, were. When I was young, I saw it as a way for me to feel comfortable in my own skin. I projected punk into some utopian realm where I can say, be, look, do, whatever I am/want. I was always aware of my differences and tried to conceal them. Tried to pretend that my frizzy hair would eventually turn blonde and straight.  Tried to pretend that eventually my skin would lighten and I would get taller. Tried to pretend that someday people wouldn’t notice or comment on my differences. That I would B L E N D into my white-washed rural youth. When I discovered that I wouldn’t and didn’t want to B L E N D I turned to music, to this subculture of punk to give me permission to be different, to not compromise or submit to some sort of homogenized ideals or expectations. It all felt very revolutionary at the time…. but that time is gone.

Now, years later, where am I? I’ve been in countless bands, (well, actually about 30) toured various places, made records, music videos, etc. and at the end of the day I’ve come to realize what is at the heart of what I love about music. I love the community, I love the activity of playing and composing, I love combining music with politics, I love teaching kids to do it and being a positive role model for them, I love using music to express social change, I love the healing effect it has on my soul, I love that I can incapsulate all that I feel in one song.

I am also faced with the things that I hate about music. I hate the way capitalist ideas of commodification has so much influence in the presentation of the music/musician.  I continually am searching for ways to challenge this and to take myself out of that context.


I love to potter with sound and the emotions it can stir, especially sad but beautiful music. I listen to most kinds of music.
I find Sound Cloud totally amazing, and the amount of talent that can be found here is just awesome beyond words.
I am self taught and play mostly by ear and by my emotions.
I fell in love with the synthesizer sounds in the late 80's.
My first real synthesizer was a  Roland JV1000 with the GM add on card, way back in 1995 or when it first came out. Sadly due to real life I had to let it go.
I have only started getting back into music the last  year or so, now that I have the time again.
Thanks to EBay I now own a few hardware synths, (d50, xp80, 01/wfd, karma, jv80 and so on) I also use sonar x1 (I  remember using cakewalk pro for dos)and a few softsynths, but I still love the hardware, as it just works. Hate fighting with computers . 

Thank you for taking the time read about me and of course listen to my creations, please feel free to leave a comment.
Angela  



Bratmobile, riot grrrl, I’m in the Band podcast, Girl Germs, Cold Cold Hearts, Partyline, Ladyfest, Cool Moms, Sex Stains, Ex Stains, Cliquey Bitches, Scorpio Scorpio, Deep Lust, DJ Babydonut

Simon Goble is a Guitarist originally from Brighton, UK. Playing, recording and producing in many bands in the Brighton Lo-fi/Alternative scene in the 90's/Noughties; most infamously as the guitarist in Anal Beard, he later went on to play guitar in the Philip Jeays band. His own music is more inspired by Post Rock and Minimalist Classical Music. Simon is now based in County Limerick in the Republic of Ireland.

Spirit Power: The Best of Johnny Marr out now
https://johnnymarr.lnk.to/SpiritPoweryv

Johnny Marr started his career with The Smiths, beginning an amazing history as one of the most influential songwriters and guitarists in British independent music. His subsequent creative journey has seen him at the heart of The The, Electronic, Modest Mouse and The Cribs, as well as working with The Pretenders, Talking Heads, The Avalanches, and the musician and composer Hans Zimmer - with whom he recorded the score and soundtrack for the most recent James Bond film, No Time To Die, including the title track created with Billie Eilish.
 
Over the course of the last decade, Marr’s solo career has given rise to four UK Top Ten albums - The Messenger (2013), Playland (2014), Call The Comet (2018), Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 (2022), and soon a career-spanning book, Marr’s Guitars. The full measure of this extraordinarily fertile period is captured on his latest offering, Spirit Power: The Best Of Johnny Marr, a major new collection curated by Marr encompassing songs from his first 10 years as a solo artist, a scattering of stand-alone singles and two incendiary new cuts, Somewhere and The Answer. 
 
Spirit Power presents a composite portrait of an artist with no less a complete ideology than the celebrated co-travellers who inspired him along the way. It’s a body of work that mirrors Marr’s unquenchable life force, breadth of musicality, and above all, his love of melody.

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