Dub Asylum - She Dubs Me
By Melanie Selby (first published in NZ Musician, July 2004)

For a moment there it seemed that Peter McLennan, aka DA had finally run out of colourful ideas. Not for his trademark Hawaiian shirts mind, nor his intelligent brand of dub for that matter, but bizarrely, for the packaging of his music.

The latest Dub Asylum release ‘She Dubs Me' is four of his tracks remixed by some of our hottest DJs/producers. Timmy Schumacher vs Substax, Rob Warner and Josh Webb, The Audioslut, and Matt Scott at Woodcut Productions.

‘She Dubs Me' is presented on 12" vinyl, sleeved in plain white cardboard. Where's the art in that?

Well by the time invited guests arrived to the EP launch in central Auckland mid-May, 60 of those plain white covers had been transformed into individual works of art, and were hanging on the cafe walls, attracting red dots faster than most fine art launches. Even those attending who don't own a turntable were forking out good money for the pleasure of owning a copy.

A strictly limited number of 300 copies of ‘She Dubs Me' have been released on vinyl - "...because you can't rip it, burn it, or download it", and each copy comes with its very own art. Auckland graffiti artists Dan Tippett and DLT painted two sets of covers, 30 each (in a 5 X 6 grid square), the rest now feature original stencil designs by Tippett - so every copy of the EP is an original piece of art.

"I came up with the idea after seeing a similar cover done as a one-off by US graff artist Doze Green in a local record shop," says Peter.

"I just expanded the idea and ran with it, and was lucky enough to hook up with Dan Tippett, who dragged in DLT too. I"ve always dug graffiti art - probably my art school roots playing up!"

The release evening was a huge success with 40 copies selling.

"Everyone who saw it on the night was blown away by it, and several people said to me ‘Why hasn't someone done this before?'" says Peter.

"Hopefully now the idea is out there, other locals doing vinyl will pick up on it, as there are heaps of talented graff artists looking for ways to get their art out. LP cover art died with the advent of the CD back in the '80s, but as any vinyl collector will tell you, there's a wealth of great covers out there. Just go and dig round in your nearest junk shop!"

‘She Dubs Me' is released on the Antenna label, now distributed by Global Routes.