The Genomic Dub Collective
About the Genomic Dub Collective |the MP3s| Explanatory notes on the lyrics | Origin of Species in Dub in the Media
The Genomic Dub Collective Presents
The Origin of Species in Dub
A celebration of Darwin's masterpiece realized through the medium of reggae music.
Bonus track, Dub fi Dover, to celebrate the outcome in the Dover, Pennsylvania trial
See explanatory notes for background information
How to order a DVD of Origin of Species in Dub
"After listening to the album, I was struck by the fact that this is not just a novelty album but actually good music that can stand on its own--enjoyable even if you don't have any interest in Darwin or his opus..."
"What could be more quintessentially University of Chicago than walking around campus listening to The Origin of Species on your iPod? I, for one, have made this album a permanent addition to my music library, so if you ever see me bobbing my head and mumbling about natural selection, you'll know what I'm listening to."
From Peter Robinett's review in the University of Chicago Student Newspaper Maroon.
Frequently Asked Questions about the Origin of Species in Dub
Why create the Origin of Species in Dub?
The idea of doing Origin in Dub arose from several sources (aside from our interests in Darwin and Dub music).Impetus was provided by hearing Benjamin Zephaniah read out Darwinian prose and poetry at the 2004 Darwin Day in Birimgham. Shortly afterwards, a chance encounter between Professor Mark Pallenand Dominic White, a Jamaican scientist working at the University of Birmingham led to the formation of the Genomic Dub Collective and a bid to the Wellcome Trust's SciArt scheme. Although we we unsuccessful in our bid, we thought, what the hell, let's do it anyway, and latched on to the idea of getting something ready for Darwin Day 2005, to celebrate Darwin's masterpiece through the medium of reggae music. The album grew in the mixing and before we knew it we had over 50 minutes worth of music. Particularly rewarding was the collaboration of a dozen or more scientific colleagues who provided an international flavour to the grand finale, which features the closing words of Origin of Species in languages as diverse as Xhosa, Hebrew, Finnish and Esperanto. For Darwin Day 2006, we created videos to accompany the music. For Darwin Day 2007, we have released all the music and videos on to the web (videos on YouTube; search with terms "Origin" and "Dub").
How did you do it?
The Origin in Dub was created using Apple's Garageband software running under Mac OS X. Instrumental material was created from loops provided with Garageband, plus two commercially availabe reggae loop collections. Vocals were largely provided by the Genomic Dub Collective's Jamaican scientist and mixing was performed by Mark Pallen. Videos were created using iMovie and draw extensively on media sources from the Wiki commons (space does not permit a full listing of credits).
What does it all mean? Where are all the quotations from? I cannot understand the Jamaican stuff!
A full set of notes describing the lyrics, their origins, the credits, translations into Standard English etc.is available here.
Why are you selling this stuff rather than just giving it all away?
Initially we invested a couple of hundred pounds of our money in this, buying software, loops etc, plus probably an equal number of person-hours. We haved now recover our costs and so have made all the material available for free. Feel free to copy or use it for educational purposes, so long as the source is acknowledged. We are selling a DVD of the video for those who want to experience the video at higher quality or want the perfect gift for a geeky friend or relative!
How to order a DVD of Origin of Species in Dub