The Thugs, the studio-dub project led by Sicilian musician, producer and visual artist Nicola Giunta, are proud to announce Mighty Tiger Dubs, a new album due September 18th via Aagoo Records. Written and produced by Giunta and performed by Giunta and Andrea Davi, Mighty Tiger Dubs is the second chapter in the world The Thugs opened on their 2023 debut, Holy Cobra Dub. Across nine tracks, Giunta and Davi traverse roots dub, electro-dub, post-punk and psychedelia, using drum-machine rhythm and wordless vocals to trace a strange island journey through Kali worship, animal attack, underground gathering and anti-colonial struggle. “It’s like a movie,” Giunta says. “The Thugs reach a pale green island. They are servants of Kali. They explore the island and find a giant anaconda. After the attack, they remain speechless and bleeding, and they look for a lair where they can repair themselves. Then they make an underground mystical gathering around the fire, talking about how to fight the enemy. At that point, a shiny mighty tiger appears like a ghost from the fire. The dawn of a new struggle begins.” The Thugs began in 2021, while Giunta was making artwork for Swedish artist The Idealist. The Idealist asked for something visually connected to old Jamaican dub records from the mid-’70s and early ’80s. Giunta started with the sleeves, then followed them into the music itself, especially Jah Shaka. “I started to look at that artwork and loved it so much,” Giunta says. “Then I listened to the music too — especially Jah Shaka, a great dub maestro from the ’70s.” That discovery led to the first Thugs sessions. Giunta brought the idea to a drummer friend, who came to his studio with a drum kit. They recorded with two or three microphones while Giunta applied dubwise effects in real time, then Giunta overdubbed bass, guitar, synthesizer, organ and other elements himself. Two tracks came first; after he sent them around, the Italian label Love Boat Records & Buttons responded, and the recordings grew into Holy Cobra Dub, released in 2023. Love Boat released Similou / The Thugs EP in March 2023, followed by Holy Cobra Dub in April and Gold And Shine EP in May. The latter paired “Gold And Shine” with remixes of “We Are Thugs” and “Cosmic Order,” opening Giunta’s tracks toward dubby techno, cosmic disco and sample-based reworkings. Holy Cobra Dub found its audience in dub, psych and Italian underground circles. Dubblog heard Lee Perry, King Tubby and Adrian Sherwood in the album and called it an excellent dub album; Weirdo Shrine called The Thugs “the real deal”; ImpattoSonoro included it on multiple 2023 year-end staff lists; and Kathodik praised its vintage roots-dub atmosphere. The record also drew endorsements from Mark Stewart of The Pop Group/On-U Sound, Chris Reeder of Rocket Recordings and Populous. Someone once called The Thugs a “fake dub band,” and Giunta took it as a compliment. The Thugs are not a live act, and not quite a band in the usual sense. “I don’t play roots dub or dub reggae with a straight, original sound,” he says. “My goal is to take dub and mix it with other things — post-punk, psychedelia and other music I like. Someone called The Thugs a ‘fake dub band,’ and that’s cool to me, because it’s not really a band. It’s a studio project. I do everything here in my studio.” For the new record, Andrea Davi plays percussion, drum machine and guitar on one track, while Giunta handles bass, guitar, organ, voice, recording, mixing, production, artwork and layout. Unlike Holy Cobra Dub, which used live drums on several tracks, Mighty Tiger Dubs is built around drum machines. “On this record, we used only drum machines,” Giunta says. “I needed a very straight rhythm. If you don’t have a very good dub drummer, you have to use a drum machine.” Giunta also tried something new with the voice. There are no conventional lyrics on Mighty Tiger Dubs; instead, he sings wordlessly, improvising sounds into the tracks. The approach goes back to 2008, when he performed with Damo Suzuki of Can and heard Suzuki’s wordless vocal approach up close. “There are no lyrics,” Giunta says. “All the singing is wordless, improvised on the tracks. I did this because in 2008, I played a gig with Damo Suzuki from Can. He was singing with this wordless approach, and at the time I thought, ‘Wow, that’s great.’ So I tried to do something like that on this new Thugs record.” Giunta made the artwork and layout himself, using Xerox and Photoshop as part of the graphic practice he has brought to record sleeves, posters, fanzines and design work for years. The album’s arc continues his fascination with Emilio Salgari’s adventure fiction, Kali worship, hidden sects and anti-colonial resistance. From there, Mighty Tiger Dubs moves track by track through the island journey. “A Pale Green Island” marks the arrival: a gentle rocksteady scene built around guitar and organ. “Servants of Kali” identifies the Thugs as Kali worshippers and moves into electro-dub, with a drum-machine loop at its center. “Giant Anaconda Attack” breaks the calm with harder percussion and a monosynth line. After the attack, “Speechless and Bleeding” leaves the Thugs stunned and wounded. On “Looking for a Lair,” they search for shelter, and the music moves away from straight dub into a more Afro-inflected and Talking Heads-adjacent sound. “Underground Mystical Gathering” takes them below the surface, gathered around fire and discussing how to fight the enemy; the track is built from a vinyl drum sample, bass, guitar, synth and melodica. In the album’s namesake, “Shiny Mighty Tiger,” a tiger rises from the fire like a ghost. “The Dawn of a New Struggle” turns more electronic, with a Roland SP-404 vocal effect that reminded Giunta of Black Dice’s early 2000s output. The record ends with “White Demons Must Die,” where drum machine, bass, guitar and melodica carry the anti-colonial story into its final loop. In the track, the title phrase becomes a loop and a mantra, repeating over the record’s last stretch. “It’s very, very dreamy. Dreamy and gloomy,” Giunta says of the album’s finale. “It’s something like a fading dream.” Tracklisting A Pale Green Island Servants of Kali Giant Anaconda Attack Speechless and Bleeding Looking for a Lair Underground Mystical Gathering Shiny Mighty Tiger The Dawn of a New Struggle White Demons Must Die