Search - Possession :: African Dub

Unsung Jewel

David K. Bell | Portland, Oregon United States | 08/02/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Dub" is one of the many sub-genres of music that takes music recorded by somebody else, electronically manipulates it and turns it into something quite different. This is not an entirely new idea. Electronic music pioneers of the Fifties and Sixties used to use what would now be called "samples" of recorded sound and alter them electronically on multi-layered tracks to produce new compositions. They used to call it "musique concrete" (pronounced "kon-KRET".) An example would be the piece "Come Out to Show Them" by the now well-known "minimalist" composer Steve Reich.Most "dub" that I have heard is reggae-based: electronic noodling around with a music form that has already been ruined by too many synthesizers and too much over-production, a fate that seems to befall any indiginous music form that has the misfortune to be "discovered" by the world pop music business. Most "dub" I have heard is awful, with notable exceptions like Mad Professor and much of the work of Bill Laswell, who, by the way, a knowledgeable record store employee told me is involved in this CD, though he is not credited on the album.African Dub is in a different category. The base music is African, not Reggae, and the electronic manipulation transforms it not into the usual dissonant, aimless stuff that you could probably come up with yourself with a tape recorder down in the basement, but into an exciting, mesmerizing journey of spirit. The music has an ethereal, dreamlike quality that has a continuous undercurrent of complex, pulsating rhythm and carries the listener along hypnotically. You find yourself at the same time in a kind of first- and second-chakra deep rhythmic groove and a mystical, dream-time world of unconscious imagery. Great for working. Great for driving across the George Washington Bridge at night or the great empty spaces of the American West night or day. Good for cooking or dreaming. Except for that record store employee, I don't know anyone who knows about this CD. But everyone I've played it for loves it."