Once booed off stage at one of their very rare gigs when supporting an early version of The Verve, Jo Wallace has been delving in the lost corners of Lancashire attics to find 'The Lost Tapes' of B:Dum B:Dum Sound; now fully cleaned up (the tapes), 30 years on, they are ready for a new dancefloor.
It wasn't that long ago that Jo Wallace (head honcho at Ramrock) unearthed the semi-lost album, 'Planet Fantastique' by The Ercons (see review HERE). A couple of months later, the human TBM (aka 'The Mole') has dug even deeper! This time, not only finding 'The Lost Tapes' but also a barely found band/group/person, B:Dum B:Dum Sound.
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So unless you were in 'The In Crowd' of Manchester's early 90s art school echo chambers of the 3 northern lads who had a 4 track EP released with the help of Bolton Arts Council, you won't be aware on the post-industrial dub beats of B:Dum B:Dum Sound (the name taken from one of the many popular tunes by Manchester's punk leaders, The Buzzcocks).
So to find a DAT tape in the attic with 4 tracks on it, 'There Is No Question Pt. 1', 'Only A Ghost', 'Mercy' and the only previously (extremely limited) released track, 'Do/Don't' is a bit of a coup: 'Do/Don't' being very much in the style of Lee 'Scratch' Perry (perhaps the one producer with more found 'lost tapes' than anyone else in history) .
You can imagine that 'electronic' music of samples, loops, dub, house isn't going to easily find an audience in Manchester at a time of contemporaries like then up and coming, indie/guitar bands like The Verve (the B:Dum B:Dum Sound supported band booing incident is not uncommon as in Suicide supporting The Clash on UK Tour or Simian Mobile Disco (The Klaxons) to name just two. But now in more enlightened times, with echo's of Jah Wobble/Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound etc and Augustus Pablo being in the building (not literally of course) with 'Only A Ghost' this is going to find a wider audience, particularly as 'Mercy' is proper mesmeric as it's been trapped in the catacombs of dub for far too long (Ed. actually, it's been 'trapped' in the loft).
We're unlikely to ever have a 'There Is No Question Pt. 2' (which is shame) but as these tapes have been remastered by Darren Morris (he of 'Union I' - see review HERE - and shortly 'Union II') this is definitely one for fans of early adoptors like Sean Johnston (did someone say, "Cisco Cisco"?) and The Flightpath Estate DJ collective plus the Rhythm Doctor (he of 'Digital Juju', see review HERE, who had he's own 'lost tapes' story release last year with Skeet's 'Park Road' EP that was big with Gilles Peterson: so much so, the Rhythm Doctor is appearing at WOH Festival this year) and Madtone (see 'Livicate EP' with Jasmine Tutu, see review HERE).
Definitely one to get now as it's far too good to be in the attic.
Artist: B:Dum B:Dum Sound
Title: The Lost Tapes
Release date: 27th June, 2025
Label: Ramrock Records
Cat. No: RR013
Format: Bandcamp / Digital
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