Founded in San Francisco in 1997,
dissent is the creation of
Gregory Howe -- a Bay Area-based producer, composer, and guitarist who is also the founder/president of the independent Wide Hive Records.
Howe's
dissent, whose name is spelled with a lower-case d, should not be confused with the Dissent that recorded an album titled Epitome of Democracy for the Amity label in 1994. Nor should
Howe's act be pigeonholed;
dissent's recordings have underscored the Northern Californian's interest in ‘70s jazz-funk as well as electronica (including downtempo, acid jazz, and trip-hop). The original import version of
dissent's self-titled debut album (which was originally distributed by Time Warp) came out in 1998, although in 2001, the disc was remastered, resequenced, and distributed by Red Eye. And those who heard
dissent's first album (which
Howe produced) agreed that
dissent was not easy to categorize. Parts of the album (which range from instrumentals to vocal offerings that feature singer Alisa Owens) are relevant to electronica, although much of dissent is mindful of ‘70s jazz-funk, though not necessarily the sort of down-home, grits-and-gravy soul-jazz that
Funk, Inc.,
Brother Jack McDuff,
Lou Donaldson, and
Grover Washington, Jr. were known for, but rather, the more mysterious and abstract ‘70s efforts of
Miles Davis or
Herbie Hancock (whose
Sextant band wasn't as commercial as his
Headhunters). The first
dissent album contained some samples and electronic programming, but quite often, it had a real band sound and employed real musicians, including trombonist Michael Rinta, flutist Tim Hyland, guitarist
Calvin Keys, drummer Ron E. Beck (who has played with Bay Area funk/soul legends
Tower of Power), and percussionist Jessy Seamore. But if
dissent's first release was a band-oriented jazz-funk effort that sometimes detoured into electronica, the album that followed had more to do with electronica than jazz-funk. Released by Wide Hive in 2002,
dissent's second album, Bleeding Together, is essentially electronica with hints of jazz. Bleeding Together, which sometimes features vocalist Nathalie Sanchez, doesn't have the band sound that often characterized
dissent's first studio outing -- it sounds a lot more programmed and is relevant to the downtempo, trip-hop, and acid jazz scenes. The first
dissent album gave a lot of space to soloists; Bleeding Together is a lot more produced. But like the first
dissent release, Bleeding Together in unpredictable. For
dissent, that programmed sound doesn't mean being harsh, abrasive, or forceful -- Bleeding Together favors the softer, gentler, more musical side of electronica and doesn't get into the sort of abrasive, in-your-face techno that one might expect to hear at a rave.
In addition to leading
dissent,
Howe has produced Wide Hive releases that include
Calvin Keys' Detours into Unconscious Rhythms, Variable Unit's Seven Grain,and the self-titled debut album by DJ Zeph. ~ Alex Henderson