Mark Wonder ADD

Review

Album Review: Umberto Echo - The Afrodub Experience

10/17/2025

by Munchy

It was meant to be his second album – but life, as it often does, had other plans. It led him down unexpected detours, onto uncharted roads, towards destinations unseen yet somehow inevitable. And as the story unfolded, it all began to make sense – everything happens for a reason.
Umberto Echo followed the call, embarking on a musical journey he began 18 years ago, one that now culminates in his twelfth studio album: The Afrodub Experience, released on GLM Global Music and Oneness Records.

The year was 2007. Two years earlier, the Berlin-based afro-funk collective Afrobeat Academy had formed around Nigerian guitarist Oghene Kologbo, a key member of the legendary Fela Kuti’s Africa 70. Deeply moved and inspired by the Afrobeats vibes coming from the capital, Philipp Winter, better known as Umberto Echo, began weaving their sound into the fabric of dub and reggae – deconstructing rhythmic layers only to rebuild them in his unmistakable dub fashion.

Vintage tape machines, a 1960s analog mixing console, and authentic 80s effects are just a few of the tools he used to imprint his signature onto the new creations. Musicians from across Africa – Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau, among others – enriched the project, joined by collaborators from the U.S., Australia, and Germany, and vocalists from Mozambique, Barbados and Jamaica, including Mark Wonder and Tydal Kamau. Even Umberto Echo’s own son appears in the credits.

Out of countless ideas, exchanges, and sessions emerged a lush, vibrant 10-track dub experience unlike anything else – as layered and lively as a bustling market in the heart of Lagos, as radiant as the Maputo promenade, as colorful as the jacaranda-lined streets of Harare.
Guitars and koras, saxophones, trombones, and trumpets shimmer, accent, swell, and dissolve into the endless expanse of reverb after spinning their wild orbits through the Dolby labyrinth. The melodic threads are distinct and refined, yet everything appears organically intertwined – merging into a beautifully multifaceted sonic experience.
This journey to the Motherland is not just a geographical one but a voyage through time, back to the unmistakable Afrobeats sound of the 1970s: grooves that move every cell in your body, percussion patterns that clack, rattle, crackle, and hiss; funky guitar licks and tight, defined basslines.

Anyone who associates dub solely with meditative deconstruction and echo trickery will be proven wrong here.
The Afrodub Experience invites you to dive headfirst into a sea of musicianship – a vivid, pulsating adventure of sound, of instrumental mastery be the likes of Daniel Stritzke, Samuel Woolton, Mandjau Fati, and co-producer Silvan Strauss, to name just a few – and, above all, into the sonic craftsmanship of Umberto Echo, who once again, for the twelfth time, affirms his mastery.
It's no coincidence that this sound engineer and producer – know for his live sets and Dolby Atmos performances – is regarded as one of the most influential dub creators of our time.

The Afrodub Experience is out now, digitally, on vinyl, on cassette, and for the connoisseurs as a Dolby Atmos stream – complete with a true to style cover artwork by aDUBta.

 

---

Release details