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LIFEFM TV Presents DUBLIFE Feat: EMPERORFARI SOUND SYSTEM

If you live in London and love Reggae it’s definitely time to keep your eye on events at The Wandle Trail. Macky McPherson is mixing up the entertainment programme and last night we were treated to serious dub music from the Emperorfari Sound System, in conjunction with the LIFEFM.TV Dublife event. Literally bringing a wall of speakers with them, all the way from Leicester, these guys really turned up traditional Roots Reggae to the max and attracted quite a crowd. In their home town they play regularly to a full house, so it’s great to experience their expertise here in London. It’s worth mentioning that Emperorfari Sound, whose strap line is, ‘Powerful Roots Warrior Sound,’- spot on- are about creating the whole experience including posters and burning a chalice of incense, an excellent move as the usual substances cannot be inhaled within the establishment! – I loved the T-Shirts with their eye-catching logo and these will be available in 2016- I have my name down already! Click for more events from Emperorfari Sound System- Roots Conference.

Also On the bill at Dublife we had Roots Youths and Shere Khan Sound featuring UK Principal, who was in excellent form. It was good to have a combination of live and recorded music; the crowd definitely appreciated everything on offer and it was a great evening- well done LIFEFM.TV!
Jaz McKenzie
Word Magician, Poet and Writer. Contact me for a professional review or bio that will be presented in my original, distinctive style to help create YOUR desired image. itsbraap@live.co.uk

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Experts Share Their Best Tips for Creating Your Home’s Vinyl Listening Room

Experts Share Their Best Tips for Creating Your Home’s Vinyl Listening Room

It seems like everything that was once vintage eventually becomes trendy again. But those who know vinyl records will be sure to tell you this way of listening to music is superior- and far beyond just a trend. Whether you’re a collector of vinyl records or looking to create a space to bring music to life, look no further than creating a vinyl listening room in your home.

To get you started, we’ve asked the experts to weigh in, all the way from Nashville, TN to Portland, OR, for their advice on how to create the best vinyl listening room in your home. Before you start playing your favorite album on your record player, check out these 11 expert tips to make your listening experience top-notch.

Seek advice from your local hi-fi dealer (and I don’t mean Best Buy). Your local hi-fi dealer has lots of experience helping people just like you set up rooms and systems in order to enjoy vinyl records. Matching amplifiers, speakers and turntables is an art. Leverage the experience of your local experts. Make sure you have plenty of space to store your records and then double it. Once you have a room set up to enjoy music, you’re going to start buying even more records. Two speakers is all you want. Forget multichannel systems intended for TV. In order to listen to vinyl records well – you just need two speakers. Ideally you want to set up an equidistant triangle between the speaker placement and your listening position (where you sit). Try and minimize hard surfaces in your room. Ideally, have a carpet or rug between your speakers and where you’re sitting. Have fun and enjoy! – Eric Gould, Soundlux Audio

Invest in the right equipment. For anyone wanting to play vinyl records in their own home, one of the most important things is to invest in a good quality stylus, so the record grooves don’t get damaged and set up the turntable arm correctly to the stylus weight specification. So many people overlook this point and ensure the arm is horizontal to the record. This set up is crucial to preserving your vinyl records. – Scee, Emperorfari Soundsystem 

Find the right source and speakers to match. The most important thing to remember when it comes to both digital or analog music reproduction is that if the music doesn’t come from your source, it can’t come from your speakers. The second most important thing is to match your speakers to your room, and your amps to your speakers. The mistake most novice audiophiles make is spending too much for their speakers vs their source components and/or buying speakers which are too large for their listening room. – Benjamin Zwickel Owner, Mojo Audio

Speaker placement is essential to the space. A good starting place for most speakers is 2-3 feet from the back wall. The distance between your speakers from each other, and you, should be close to the same distance. Be willing to experiment with the positioning that sounds best. Your walls and ceiling are reflective surfaces that can create challenges. So be willing to try positioning that may seem radical in your mind. – Matt, Vintage HiFi Nut

Research what’s best for your space and budget. As a lifelong lover of vinyl, I have been through many iterations of set-ups over the years. From college in the ’90’s with a turntable in a big audio stack when everyone laughed that I still bought vinyl, to a more sophisticated system today, both in store and at home, my most important tip would be to buy the very best you can afford. There are a lot of options on the market so do your research to pick the best choice for the space you have. The same goes for speakers and in this game, you definitely get what you pay for. You get a lot of big sound out of some really small speakers these days, so don’t let size determine your purchase. Look at your room, place yourself in the middle of the speakers and a good distance back in comfy seating, and settle in with an adult beverage for the one of a kind richness of sound that can only come from vinyl. – Todd Hedrick, Owner Vinyl Tap

Keep your turntable in a handy, easy-to-reach spot — because you should be playing records all day long!  Play vinyl while you’re eating breakfast, cooking dinner, reading the paper, hanging out with friends, and anything else you do in and around your home. – Rick Wojcik, Dusty Groove

Think about playing more than just vinyl. With the Como Audio Musica + Turntable Analog + Platform bundle, you will be able to play your records, access more than 50,000 free Internet radio stations, stream your music via Bluetooth, play from Amazon Music (subscription required), Spotify, play your CDs, tune FM radio, and even connect your Alexa device. All of this great music content from just two units, and the Platform puts your turntable at a convenient height and saves space. Group multiple Como Audio systems and spread your music throughout your home! – Peter Skiera General Manager, Como Audio, Inc.

Celebrate your records by treating them like functional artwork to add rotating vibrancy to your home and walls. A shallow shelf with a lip (usually used for displaying picture frames) makes a great display area for your vinyl records in current rotation while also keeping them accessible to spin at any time. Mount the shelf (or multiples) above or near your turntable to create a living shrine to the soundtrack of your home. – Brandon Bogajewicz, VINYL MOON

Lighting creates the right mood for a vinyl listening space. A great tip for anyone lucky enough to build a dedicated space for music listening is to fit the room with remote controlled dimmable lights. To create a warm, cinema-like atmosphere with very little light in the room. Listening to your favorite tunes in a comfortable room with minimal lighting will boost your auditory senses and make the artists and instruments more present and real and the music listening experience more fun, emotional, and engaging. – Tom, Owner and Publisher of Vinyl Restart

Vinyl listening rooms aren’t complete without a cozy seat. A comfortable sitting arrangement, in our opinion, is the most important aspect to any listening room. High end stereo equipment can absolutely enhance your listening experience, but a cozy seat that you can ideally move around the room will most certainly beg to be used. Your listening room and your vinyl collection will get the attention they truly deserve, if that’s the room you go into to relax. – Cory O’Sullivan, Electric Key Records

You don’t need much to enjoy your space. If you want to optimize your listening space at home, you’ll just need to follow these simple guidelines. Make sure you have a nice big comfy chair, 6-10 feet away centered between the speakers. Pour yourself a nice glass of Scotch or drink of choice and most importantly, no kids allowed. – Mark Carter, Music Record Shop

Originally published by Redfin

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MAGAZINE ARTICLE

MAGAZINE ARTICLE
Emperorfari sound system, Leicester, founded in 2006.
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“My aim is to keep our heritage. When our roots music was played back in the day it was times of great suffering for our parents, grandparents and ancestors. We never went to normal bars and pubs due to racist elements in this country, so small school halls and community centres where the places where dances were originally held, and we could freely listen to our music and fulljoy the dance. Naturally times have changed now and I personally follow the teachings of Rastafari in my day to day livity, so my aim is to bring music to the good people who attend our dances and to give them a safe environment where they can come and meet like-minded brethren and sistren, and fuljoy the uplifting vibes of a real sound system.”
SCEE, FOUNDER, EMPERORFARI
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With African and Caribbean heritage, Scee’s inspiration is drawn from many of the sounds of the late 1970s and 80s: he sees them as providing a much-needed safe space for his parents, grandparents and ancestors, in which to come together and enjoy their music.
Scee’s aim with Emperorfari is to honour the heritage and suffering of his parents, grandparents and ancestors, and to remember how roots music was used and plays: as a way of uplifting people, but often sidelined by mainstream society, forced out of bars and clubs and into smaller community venues. He also – as a Rastafarian – aims to spread a positive message through his dances, giving people a safe, accepting place to go and enjoy music; whether that’s just through his sound or paired up with others playing in the dance, in the UK and across Europe. He even created Roots Conference (a gathering of sound systems, usually alongside Emperorfari) with 6-8 conferences taking place throughout the year at Leicester venues.
For Scee, it’s important to value reggae as the music that comes from his family background and heritage – both Caribbean and African – but he also thinks it’s similarly important for people from similar backgrounds: ”The music is the heartbeat of the world, it is the off beat which is predominate in our music which is felt through the sub bass speakers in a gathering, unlike nightclubs and PA systems. It is very spiritual and uplifting – people come to free their minds and souls and can simply close their eyes and feel the vibrations taking all their laden worries away.
“Our gatherings are not like other clubs and events, no one is judged and you are free to wear comfortable garments when you attend. It’s a place where all creeds all colours, people of all ages and backgrounds come and attend and join in to feel the ONELOVE message we promote and try to spread unity amongst each and all.”
Scee feels similarly passionate about vinyl – it’s the only format he uses on Emperorfari, and again feels that it connects him with his heritage, in both the wider sense of sound system culture (using the same format and skills as previous generations of sound men) but also in the way that his record collection is made up of vinyl passed down from generation to generation in his family. He does acknowledge, however, the expense involved in using the format, and does not exclude sounds that use digital methods. “Personally I believe as long as the music reaches the masses and uplifts the people than it doesn’t really matter how it’s being played,” he says. “But keeping our heritage, still pressing dubplates…Emperorfari will always play vinyl.”
Scee also embraces the changing make up of sound system operators. He thinks it’s refreshing to see more women emerging on the scene, believing they play and bring the vibes just as well as sound men (and sees them being received well by audiences / other sounds), and says that the increasing popularity of reggae with people of all backgrounds is a positive thing for the scene and for dances. He does think it’s important to keep playing roots and culture though, and not bend to pressure to just play crowd-pleasers like dubstep. “I have seen many youngsters coming to dances only for extremely loud bass,” he says. “Some sounds play so loud that even with earplugs the levels are dangerous for your ears. New technology enables sounds to play at levels which personally I feel are ridiculous!”
Emperorfari will continue to focus on spreading the message of ONELOVE and unity, he says, through playing roots and culture at a level heavy enough for dancers to feel the vibrations but without the need to wear ear plugs. “Each to their own,” says Scee, “but we appreciate all our supporters and other sound systems alike who see the same vision.”