Anniversary reissues are, it seems, ten-a-penny nowadays, and, it must be said, not all of them have aged all that well.
However, there’s something timeless about the work of Dreadzone, their fusion of electro, dub and reggae sounding like it could have been recorded yesterday.
But it is, remarkably, 30 years since the London act released their debut album ‘360°’ on Creation Records. Now in 2023, with the band celebrating three decades in existence, the nine track effort has been remastered for a vinyl release on their own Dubwiser Records label.
The re-issue comes on double heavyweight vinyl with the original artwork and sleeve notes in a hand-numbered limited edition.
Like the tale of Oasis being signed on the back of a guerrilla gig in Glasgow, it’s said that Alan McGee heard the demos for ‘360°’ in a limo on his way to a show in Japan and instantly decided to sign them to his Creation label.
Greg Roberts and Tim Bran inked the original deal and retreated to a London studio to work on what would become the first Dreadzone album. They were joined by Roberts’ former bandmate in Big Audio Dynamite, Dan Donovan, with Deborah Irie enlisted to provide vocals, alongside Mel Blatt (later of All Saints) and Alison Goldfrapp (although sometime-backing singer Denise van Outen can’t make an appearance on ‘360°’ as a claim to fame).
However, perhaps the most distinct voices on the release did not volunteer their services. Taking the template from BAD’s groundbreaking debut album, Dreadzone’s template of dub, trance, and electro was augmented by samples from classic films, including Ennio Morricone on ‘The Good the Bad and the Dread’, as well as clips from Burt Lancaster, and on ‘L.O.V.E.’ a sample of dialogue from Robert Mitchum in 1955’s Night of the Hunter.
After ‘360°’ Dreadzone opened the Glastonbury Pyramid Stage in 1994 and, reaching a wider audience, went on to have several chart singles including Top 20 hit ‘Little Britain’. Their most recent studio album ‘Dread Times’, also released on their own label, stormed into the UK Top 40 on release – the first time the band had charted in over 20 years. A new studio album is in the pipeline for a 2024 release.
This article originally appeared in the Sunderland Echo.
Also chief newshound at Jockrock
- Weird Wave - 11 December 2024
- Rat Scabies - 10 December 2024
- The Wombles - 9 December 2024