Dublab

dublab
TypePublic radio network
Country
United States
AvailabilityGlobal
Founded1999
OwnerFuture Roots, Inc.
Key people
Mark McNeill
Alejandro Cohen, Matthew McQueen, Jake Viator & Diego Herrera
Official website
dublab.com

dublab is a non-profit music public broadcasting internet radio station based in Los Angeles. They have also been involved with art exhibition, film projects, event production, and record releases. These shows are archived and downloadable on the dublab website. dublab also broadcasts on KLDB-LP on 99.1 FM in Los Angeles. dublab was founded in 1999 by Jonathan Buck, Mark McNeill and fellow students from KSCR Radio at the University of Southern California.

Their name is a portmanteau of dubbing and laboratory for the combined meaning: a place of experimenting with sampling music. Examples of this, besides their stream, is their film production Secondhand Sureshots[1] where they gave producers, such as Daedelus, five dollars to buy albums from thrift stores and sampling the music to create new tracks.[2] Another in audio/visual form is Into Infinity a collaboration with Creative Commons.[3] It is a group art exhibition of around a hundred vinyl record sized circular artworks and more than a hundred eight second audio loops. The works are randomly dubbed together and is all made freely available for others to remix and sample, even on the project's website.

In January 2008, dublab formed a non-profit umbrella corporation Future Roots, Inc.[4][5] The name comes from their characteristic style of mixing traditional music, such as folk, with electronic sounds. It also refers to the paradox that often music that is actually really old can sound very much like it was made in the present. In that theme, dublab will often only be written as either all lowercase or all uppercase by those familiar with the collective. There are other such characteristic writing styles such as a heavy use of alliteration.

Much of dublab's funding comes directly via listener support,[6] with other funds generated through grants, Underwriting spots and event production. Their sound system and DJs have been featured at; MOCA, LACMA, Art Center College of Design, Barnsdall Art Park, CalArts, Page Museum/La Brea Tar Pits, The Getty Center,[7] Disney Hall,[8] UCLA, Hammer Museum, Hollywood Bowl, and El Rey Theatre.

They also have extended to releasing records such as; In The Loop series, Summer, Freeways, Echo Expansion and Light from Los Angeles. They record many Sprout Sessions at their studio in Los Angeles, which are released via their Live at dublab Podcast. These have made their way to record releases such as the Feathers Sprout Session. In August 2008 they released their performance video project called Vision Version,[9] which is available as an RSS feed.[10] They also have music-themed group art shows such as Into Infinity, Dream Scene, Up Our Sleeve, and Patchwork.

  1. ^ "Secondhand Sureshots". Retrieved Oct 1, 2019 – via www.imdb.com.
  2. ^ "Dublab's Secondhand Sureshots: DVD, 12-inch, Slipmats & Hand-screened sleeves | Stones Throw Records". www.stonesthrow.com. Retrieved Oct 1, 2019.
  3. ^ "Dublab & Creative Commons Launch "Into Infinity" - Creative Commons". Archived from the original on 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2008-11-29.
  4. ^ Miketa, Fred (Nov 6, 2007). "Dublab Turns 8, Goes Non-Profit". XLR8R. Retrieved Oct 1, 2019.
  5. ^ "dublab". www.dublab.com. Retrieved Oct 1, 2019.
  6. ^ "Turning on Tomorrow: Dublab's Proton Drive Fundraiser | 89.3 KPCC". www.scpr.org. Archived from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  7. ^ "Framing L.A." www.getty.edu. Retrieved Oct 1, 2019.
  8. ^ "The OrbSOLD OUT | LA Phil". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02. Retrieved 2014-01-31.
  9. ^ "Dublab's Vision Version Series: Typically Inspired Offerings | West Coast Sound | Los Angeles | Los Angeles News and Events | LA Weekly". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02. Retrieved 2014-01-31.
  10. ^ "Core Values | Future Roots". Retrieved Oct 1, 2019.