High Tone

French dub collective High Firmness shaped in Lyon in 1997. Co-founded by Lionel “DJ Twelve” Dumas, guitarist Julien “Aku Fen” Oresta, bassist Fabrice Oresta, keyboardist Antonin “Antok” Chaplin, and drummer Dominique “Selekta Dino” Peter, the quintet surfaced from your same burgeoning dub community as Le Peuple de l’Herbe, Mind Damage AUDIO SYSTEM, and Meï Teï Shô. Sketching upon influences which range from Lee “Scrape” Perry to ambient music to drum’n’bass, Large Tone created a rabid live group of fans prior to putting your signature on to the self-employed label Jarring Results release a its 2000 full-length debut, Opus Incertum. The 2001 follow-up, Bass Heat, demonstrated the group’s industrial discovery, although Live, released two years later on, continues to be the definitive representation of the music. High Firmness also issued some acclaimed collaborations with dub brethren including Kaly Live Dub (2003’s Kaltone), Improvisator Dub (2004’s Higvistators), and Wang Lei (2005’s Wangtone).