Wrongtom is a producer and DJ from South London. His career has spanned over a decade, covering a colourful patchwork of styles from dancehall to indie-pop, with the likes of rockabilly, dub, ghetto-tech and free jazz filling the gaps in between.
Starting out as a percussionist playing on records for Bob Jones’ Black On Black label and Kingsize, Tom soon taught himself to produce with some hand-me-down analogue gear and a cracked copy of Cubase, his early productions bridging the gap between new school breaks and old freestyle-electro records.
He has also been tangled in the web of pop music, touring the land with spiky soul boys Hard-Fi where he notched up production credits on a UK number one LP.
This paved the way for his reggae/dub collective Stoneleigh Mountain Rockers, with whom he has worked on projects for Trojan Records and Pama International (featuring 2-Tone luminary Lynval Golding). He has most recently released the album Duppy Writer with UK hip-hop legend, Roots Manuva.
As a DJ Tom has travelled the world from Shanghai to Southampton. He has also infiltrated the airwaves for a few years via experimental station Resonance FM with his radio partner Mr Trick.
More info:
Wrongtom website
Respect to Wrongtom for his December Top Ten pieces of studio gear for making reggae, dub and dancehall.
1. Roland RE201 Space Echo
The ultimate dub tool for the best in delay, echo and reverb. I rarely make a track without it.
2. WEM Copicat Mk IV
The Copicat loses out to the Roland due to less versatility but holds it’s own as far as dirty delays go.
3. The Great British Spring
There’s nothing better than the classic clanging reverb from one of these bad-boys despite it looking like a length of drainpipe.
4. Boss PC2 Percussion Synth
A Hell’s Angel sold me one of these in a petrol station a few years back and I now use it for all my bleeps and blips.
5. Moog MF102 Ring Modulator
They used to call it “more chip” when trying to get that ear piercing hi-hat sound and this is exactly how you go about it.
6. Korg Sigma
This might be a big bulky synth but I like to use it for tiny squelchy sounds, you can hear it on loads of my dub tracks.
7. Boss RE20 Space Echo Pedal
If you don’t fancy splashing out on the real thing then Boss now do a decent pedal replicating the original RE201.
8. Casio MT40
This should need no introduction if you like your digital dancehall, the keyboard which changed reggae history.
9. Leslie 122 Rotary Speaker
Sadly I don’t have room for a Leslie but if you wanna record organ properly then there’s nothing better, and they look awesome.
10. Dub Siren iPhone App
Thanks to these folks you can now get a realistic dub siren for next to nothing. I used it on Duppy Writer if anyone doubts it’s credentials.
