Dub Retrospective
James Collins | North Carolina | 08/21/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The great Bad Brains have never released a recording as satisfying as this one. Full, phat bottom, distinctive tempo changes, and imaginative (dub) versions of their classic songs make this essential for long time fans. The (limited edition?) import version includes a second disk: 28 live tracks recorded from '82 to '92 with HR leading the full sonic assault for which the group was known. This is the Bad Brains record I've been waiting for since the early '80s."
Was gonna give them a 4 just out of TO-TAL RESPECT, but...
Mr. Richard K. Weems | Fair Lawn, NJ USA | 06/06/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I just couldn't do it. Bad Brains, despite the gross misrepresentation in American Hardcore, were ALWAYS a thrash AND reggae band--although they liked to think of themselves as gospel, a category I will always accept. And man, they ROCKED!! "Pay to C*m" is probably one of the thrashest tracks ever recorded.
Now, this may seem like an unfair start of a review, to go over the heyday of the band as though I'm going to evaluate this solely by their past acts and not allow them to grow and change, but this album very much WANTS us to be sure who the Bad Brains are (though they are recording sans HR)--aside from the Enhanced CD extra, with blurbs from Perry Farrell and others, the way they offer dub redos of Brains songs from their reggae catalog (like "Rally") and thrash (like "Gene Machine," "How Low Can a Punk Get") very much makes it obvious that they want us to remember the Brains of old. Know, Daryl and Earl can definitely lay down some nice, low, heavy dub, but the little, teasing snatches of HR samples seem almost underhanded or mean-spirited, and the "I & I Survive (Shiner Massive Mix)" at the end is painfaully bad. There are brief snatches of some hard Know strumming, but while the old Brains were predominantly thrash with a little less reggae, this Brains incantation is mostly dub with too little thrash.
I'm going to keep this one around for a little while and see if it grows more on me, but legends who carry their legendary status on their sleeves seem to cut their own legend branch a little short. This disc might be good to mix in with some classic Brains track, but it doesn't seem to hold itself together for a good, solid listen.
"
Tasty dub reggae with smatterings of punk
Paydirt | Salt Lake City, UT | 01/08/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you like reggae, dub reggae in particular, BUY THIS CD. I was turned onto this by a friend and have since turned on many other friends to it as well. Each time I try to make them listen for a while and guess who it is. The jaws always hit the floor when I tell them it's Bad Brains. Just goes to show that these guys can hit any genre out the ballpark.
The production quality is very very good on this album. It's a wonderful album to use when you're listening to ultra high end audio systems.
This album became the soundtrack for my life for about 6 months and if you like dub reggae I think it will for you too."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1