Following Feet by Jody Bigfoot and Dub Troubles

They say to “make it” or “go viral” you need to upload a 15 second piece of content at least once a day. Jody Bigfoot takes a different approach, recklessly campaigning to keep the album format alive in a siege against the attention span of modern minds. This is a war of attrition, and luckily Jody’s resources don’t seem to be running out as he drops his tenth album in ten years…

Following Feet, produced by Spanish dub producer Dub Troubles was recorded in Jody’s walk-in wardrobe in Australia, with layers of Bunnings Warehouse moving blankets for sound dampening. When Jody left England to tour his 9th album (Geordie Japanese Dancehall) in 2024, he had no idea where he would end up afterwards. One sentence from his friend (and awesome producer) Ekula about Australian working holiday visa rules being updated regarding Brexit, opened up an entirely new path for him, and he did what a wandering sasquatch does best, he followed his feet down that path. Dub Troubles has crafted an impressive variety of backing tracks to match Jody’s trademark exploration of existential topics and his cut throat analysis of broken systems. As a primarily Dub focused producer, he has demonstrated that he has explosive talents throughout the genres, and paired with Jody’s radical, renegade energy this is another unique and powerful addition to both of their colourful discographies.

The album opens with “Interdimensional”, an eerie dub track which has the vibe of an uneasy trip. The verse opens with the wordplay (that works best in a geordie accent) “Are ya into dimensions? I’m interdimensional…” and explores the various realms our consciousness roams through, from nature to ether and even our manufactured reality. Next we roll into “Stupid Men”, a big dub track about the poor decisions and ready consumption of propaganda by mankind. With its sung chorus, we see Jody start to develop as an artist, taking a step away from pure rap and utilising collaborators to sing hooks.

Track three, is a fine example of Jody’s collaborative artistry, with an energetic verse from Kyoto grime MC, MC Beyond and a Japanese chorus sung by geordie turned American mom, JaneyBear, “Sunshine” is a reminder of the light and power within us all. The chorus “taiyo no hikari no kokoro itsu mo”, translates as “a sunshine state of heart, always”. The song is polished with stellar improvised flute from Luke Flute, the flautist of Shelanigig and Belter Reivers, two northern folk bands. Jody often wrestles with themes of light and shadow and it's then fitting that following a bright song about sunshine he would give us “Morbid Thoughts”, an intense rap song about how dark thoughts can get when approaching the suffering the banking and military industrial complex inflicts on the world.

Five and Six are a joint track with five being a poem from geordie rapper Tommy23 that inspired the track “Roam On”, in which Jody teams up with one of many people met through instagrams #conscioushiphop hashtag - Pine Eel, a Louisiana rapper dedicated to “keeping the ritual habitual”. Roam On is about keeping our feet moving forward even in dark or difficult times and is paired with a forward leaning instrumental with squelchy synths that embody feet stepping through mud and jagged percussion like rough terrain.

Track seven, “Error 404” is a sublime dub poetry song with bouncy tape echo surrounding the ASMR stylings from Bigfoot. Jody’s voice works well in rap yet this subdued method of recording works to build an intimate atmosphere for philosophical exploration, and as he says “confused mate? It’s relatable”. Track eight’s hook blends this ASMR style with backing singing by Jody, and by using a small variation he keeps the motion moving through the album in tandem with Dub Troubles’ production that takes a more spacey dub vibe in “Troubling Dub”.

Track nine sees Jody link back up with Yugo Taguchi, Berlin based Japanese singer who toured Japan for a couple weeks with Jody in 2024. Following on from their collaboration “Tabibito” (traveller) released in 2024 with an awesome accompanying music video, “Working Hard” is the natural follow up as every travelling trip has to be paid for somehow! Both MCs talk and sing about hard graft and how it’s important in life to build strength, discipline and a world where your dreams can be manifested, “and when it’s time to graft for cash, just watch out who ya serving”. This is a track to be rewound, with the crisp and flowing intro by Jody Bigfoot leading seamlessly into Yugo’s captivating vocals.

Followed up with another tribute to the joys of travel whilst freeing feet and mind, track ten, “See Me Over There” sees Bigfoot venture into singing his own hooks again, interspersed with articulate verses that delve deeper into dissecting this chaotic world and encouraging listeners to find peace with nature. The track finished with a brief unwritten freestyle before dubbing out and giving Dub Troubles high grade production to shine through. Track eleven revives the song “Ring Ring” from Jody’s debut solo album “Duszt” with a fresh re-recording of the vocals over Dub Troubles’ own take on a trappy dub song. Track twelve is Jody’s first (public) romance song, “Stay With Me” shows us a different side to the typically politically charged artist, yet as is a moral of George Orwell’s 1984, in a system built on hatred, love is a political act.

Ten albums in, Jody still hasn’t “made it” or “gone viral”. Yet his relentless pursuit of crafting long form content with meaning and a message reminds us that the job of an artist isn’t to spread 15 seconds of “art” through phone screens like a plague in desperation for 15 minutes of fame, it is to mirror existence and society through the lens of the soul. Never giving up in these endeavours he frames his lessons, learnt from great teachers and creatives that came before, in a format that requires appreciation and consideration to digest. Jody’s discography is a tree branch, growing slowly but surely in one direction towards the light. Every album is presented in a new genre, or a slanted twist on an existent one, taking inspiration from a myriad of places whilst collaborating with producers from 8 different countries as he hones his craft deeper and deeper into the trenches. With the recent ventures into more singing and self-production, we can only expect this to continue for at least another 10 albums.

Trinity Lo Fi was a groundbreaking 8-bit reggae hip-hop group formed in Newcastle UK. After dissolving as a group it has become a record label, launching with Jody Bigfoot's debut solo project Duszt. A 12 track visual album filmed on location in Japan...

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