2011 recap: Amy Kirtay of Dub Selekta

A sub⎹div supporter from the get-go, we got a lotta love for Mz Kirtay. Outside of running her hugely successful blog Dub Selekta, she’s come on board this year & helped us cover some major events, most notably Decibel Festival & Rifflandia. This past October, we helped Dub Selekta celebrate its one year anniversary with Distance. As we look to next week & our own anniversary celebrations, we’re amped to have Kirtay here in Victoria alongside us supporting fresh dancefloor sounds.

Jamie xx & Gil-Scott Heron “New York Is Killing Me” (XL)

Amy Kirtay: 2011 was a huge growth year for myself, both personally and professionally. It saw the expansion of Dub Selekta as we revamped the website, hired on a marketing team and had our first birthday celebration with Distance in collaboration with sub⎹div. 2011 also was the first year I started doing press coverage for Dub Selekta as well as sub⎹div with features covering Rifflandia, Shambhala Music Festival and Decibel Music Festival. Each festival was amazing in their own right but Shambhala and Decibel both stood out for me as with moments frozen in time in my head that I’ll forever remember.

At Shambhala it included hearing my friend Charlotte Dobre’s track “Another Planet’s Air” being played during Subvert’s set in the Village and while it may mean more to her personally, it was amazing to be there at that moment as thousands of people listened to my friend’s voice belt out through 30,000 watt speakers. Another highlight was interviewing folks in the line up to Shambhala and finding regular readers of Dub Selekta who were just as excited to meet and talk with me as I would be if I were talking to one of my idols.

At Decibel highlights included exploring a brand new city and working as a music journalist for a week straight. The Night Slugs showcase with the whole sub⎹division familia as well as my interview with EPROM after the Night Frite showcase in the park were both definite highlights I won’t soon forget.

Another major milestone for me included getting to interview a few of my long-standing favourite artists; Cut Chemist and Caspa. I’ve been listening to and following Cut Chemist since I was 13 and to finally interview him nine years later felt like a dream come true. I remember that the interview with him was one of the only ones where I felt I was going to puke due to nervousness. And Caspa, well who wouldn’t want to talk to a Dubstep Don like Caspa? I pulled out all the stops to make the interview happen and to have him tell me that I know my stuff quite well and that he’d recommend me to others made my heart melt.

So all in all, lots of little milestones for me this year but all coming together to form a major step ahead for not only Dub Selekta but also myself.

Tune of 2011: While “NY Is Killing Me” technically came out in Nov 2010, the album it was featured on, We’re New Here with both Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX, came out in Feb 2011 and was a large part of what I spent last spring listening to. With Scott-Heron’s passing this year it cemented the tune for me and is now one that I listen to with great fondness. The bouncing bass line coupled with edited vocals reminiscent of chirping birds along with Scott Heron’s deep, weathered voice comes together to form an beautiful track that will forever be a shining spot in Scott-Heron’s career for me. With the track invoking both eerie feelings and warmth, it is a stunning piece of music that I can replay forever and never tire of.