Jonathan Muirhead looks at On-U Sound’s extensive reissue series of the early Dub Syndicate catalogue…
You want to help the turkey and stuffing settle down? Lie back in your armchair and stick this on.
The bass line burns its way onto your synapses. The drums are so laid back as to be horizontal. It’s the perfect post-Christmas soundtrack. Dub Syndicate is a slow and deliberate album.
It takes its time to get under your skin. It’s a very cinematic album. Close your eyes when you are listening to it and you could be in one of these great road movies from the ‘70s (Five Easy Pieces, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Badlands).
You’ll be wandering along inside your own psyche, then some pleasant aural shock, such as African Head Charge will come along and pleasantly trip you up.
It’s like a lover wrapping their arms around you. You know what’s coming but don’t want the build up to end. ????
______________________________
One Way System
Coming after The Pounding System, this album is a disappointment.
It continues the smooth reggae sound of its predecessor but fails to add anything new.
While it should have taken the seeds of drum and bass, sown them and expanded upon them, all it does is sit back and admire them.
Dub Syndicate seem to have forgotten that a continuation of vibe and mood needs sustenance other than the memory of what one has achieved before.
Overall then, a good but bland album where the cover is more colourful than the sounds therein. ??
______________________________
Tunes From The Missing Channel
If these tunes are from “the missing channel”, what did the ones that were found sound like? Yes, this album is a mess. But what a fantastic-sounding mess! Reggae music, at its best, is surely like the jazz of the Caribbean Hemisphere. It sounds like it was invented in a flash. Yet, keep listening and you can hear the sure cogs of experience turning expertly in the background. Tracks such as Jolly and Out And About are a sure testament to this. Whereas in the pas Dub Syndicate sounded too restrained by the confines of the studio, here, they seem to have turned up, turned on and let rip. Everything gels beautifully and the overall sound makes you just want to float away with them to their own special island, wherever that maybe. And in Ravi Shankar Part 1, they have an undiscovered classic of both reggae and electro. ????
______________________________
Displaced Masters
Sweeping up various oddities and curios that didn’t make their various studio albums, Displaced Masters rounds off a fine set of reissues for Dub Syndicate. Tracks such as Boggled Minds and No Flash show a sharper, more electronic edge showing through on their sound. It gives a sense of what direction they may have taken, other than the reggae path they chose. If not everything works or quite suits them, and then, that’s just what happens on compilations such as this. The pleasure is in discovering shades and sounds you didn’t know existed before. The disjointedness is what makes this album stand out. Their normal studio albums had an ebb and flow about them. You knew where you were going. Here, you don’t and the excitement lies in the uncertainty. ???
______________________________
Doctor Pablo & The Dub Syndicate – North of the River Thames
This is where Dub Syndicate finally made good on the promise of The Pounding System. Whereas One Way System, their previous album, was too in awe of that album to take any further steps forward, the introduction here of Dr. Pablo has given Dub Syndicate a massive boost of confidence. The Beats are stronger, the bass lines are wonderfully curved and tracks such as Pressurised and A Taste Of Honey prove that you don’t need to have vocals to give a track a voice. You can hear the subtle, sensual tones in the background, teasing you, tempting you further in, like a mermaid would a sailor. And this is one island this reviewer would happily be marooned on. ????