His debut album was recently produced by world renowned reggae bassist, Fully Fullwood (Founder of Soul Syndicate,Peter Tosh,Bob Marley).

The 12 song album, named "Firm Soundation" was written and arranged by Jah Mex. It grooves from track to track with original bass lines from Fully Fullwood. Firm Soundation’s mindful theme begins with roots reggae track, “Conscious Revolution”; a request from Jah Mex to “open up your mind, eyes, ears, and heart”. The signature guitar sound from reggae veteran, Tony Chin, is featured in songs including “You Got My Eye”, “Lamb’s Bread”, and “Vision of Blind”. The album will be released in June, 2009 on independent record label, Family Vybz Records.

He is supported on stage by a group of top ranking reggae musicians known as the Translators. Together Jah Mex and the Translators have been both the supporting and headlining act at major concert venues including Vault 350 in Long Beach, CA, Malibu Inn in Malibu, CA, OC Tavern in Orange County, CA and Mozambique in Laguna Beach, CA.

Earlier in his career Jah Mex played keyboards on tour in 2003 for international reggae singer, Eek A Mouse. He credits traveling with Eek A Mouse to Europe, Puerto Rico, and throughout the U.S, for inspiring him to journey with his own music. In 2006 Jah Mex launched online reggae radio station, www.Shockout.com, which has become internationally known as a place to hear the latest conscious reggae artists. The name, Jah Mex, comes from a dream to have a restaurant that blends Mexican and Jamaican food called "Jah Mex".

Jah Mex has also played keyboards with international and local reggae artists including Junior Reid, Mighty Diamonds The Melodians,Tippa Irie, Abijah, Four 20 Band, Fresh Roots, Boomshaka, Upstream, Lesterfari & Kings Music, Lions Den, Smoothie Jones, Local Culture, Chapter 11, Skarcha, Higher Lion, World Anthem, Rebel Rockers, and Crucial.
http://www.myspace.com/jahmexroots

Dale Hauskins backing Beth Preston.The Belly Up,Solana Beach,California.March 8 2009

Dale Hauskins backing Beth Preston.The Belly Up,Solana Beach,California.March 8 2009

Dale Hauskins backing Beth Preston.The Belly Up,Solana Beach,California.March 8 2009

Dale Hauskins backing Beth Preston.The Belly Up,Solana Beach,California.March 8 2009

Tracklist:

"Shipwreck Glue" (4:49) Wes Coats Remixed by Scotty Coats and Wes The Mes aka Wes Coats additional guitar by Dale Hauskins.

Press release notes:

The release of Kelpe's Ex-Aquarium album back in February 2008 was met with a swathe of critical acclaim and followed by a series of incendiary live shows, all of which have unquestionably informed this wondrous cast of artists and producers, who have turned their hand to remixing various album tracks with wildly different results...

"Shipwreck Glue" gets strung out and dosed up on Californian sunshine courtesy of Wes Coats (Rong). Balearic disco energy reminiscent of Studio or Mountain Of One washing over the ping-pong staccatos of the Kelpe original.

Kelpe is Kel McKeown,from Loughborough,England.

After tentative pre-teenage forays into cassette recorders and joke rap bands with friends, Kel devoted most of his teenage years to bone splintering skateboarding mishaps before deciding that loops and samples might provide him with a safer past time than trucks and wheels.

Despite adolescent attempts at computer music resulting in "crap rave efforts" made on a commodore Amiga, the process of sampling and sequencing provided him with a discipline and focus that is of fundamental importance to the creative process that he currently employs in the execution of his gob-smackingly impressive "head-nod-tronica" work-outs.

Coming to the attention of DC Recordings in early 2003, his first release for label was the 12" EP 'The People are Trying to Sleep', a wide eyed carnival of fractured beats and warped electronics. This was followed by the critically acclaimed album 'Sea Inside Body' (September 2004) and most recently, by bedroom discotheque 12" 'Sunburnt Eyelids' (October 2005).

With influences ranging from the bleeps & bass of classic Warp artists to the spectral folk of John Renbourn, and the minimalism of Steve Reich to the percussive space-scapes of Do Make Say Think, the diversity of the music that inspires Kelpe finds reflection in his own sonic adventures, informing his ever evolving sound, combining as map and compass to guide his lunar-bound b-boy throwdowns.

Watch out for Kelpe playing live dates across Europe soon!

For more information check www.dcrecordings.com or http://myspace.com/kelpemusic.