The Orb - Blue Room

This is the epic 39'58" mix from 1992, which is a single track cd single. I've listened to this a few times recently, and I'm sure it's not just nostalgia which has made it so enjoyable. Whilst this does transport me back to the early 90s, and the sound of this music is powerfully redolent of the spaced-out listening sessions I used to have, I still think this is objectively excellent. Alex Paterson always has had an inspired touch with samples and synth-scapes. I'm sure he is significantly aided by co-producers Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy from System 7, as well as Thrash, and of course, Jah Wobble.
The opening 6 minutes are classic ambient - spacey samples and synth washes, before a beat kicks in, followed shortly by Wobble's massive striding bass line. It is then just dubbed into oblivion over the next half an hour. Cheeky samples, cavernous breakdowns, percussion overloads, NASA type radio communications, and a great deal of liquid synth effects precede a very monged breakdown halfway through. It builds back up with a variation on the bass line, and chugs away into a blissful distant horizon.

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I highly recommend the U.F.Orb album, currently available from Amazon for around the same price as a pint of beer. Much as I love beer, a pint won't be providing me with much joy 18 years after I've consumed it.
Buy it - it's brilliant.

Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die

Released back in 1996 as the burgeoning post rock scene was rising to prominence, this contains what I think is still one of the genre's greatest ever statements - 'Djed'. This was the 21 minute epic that took up the entire first side of the album. At the time, it was a common characteristic of post rock that the bass would often lead the melody, and this piece is driven by a monstrous chugging bass line that provides rhythm and melody in equal measure, as an electric piano slowly comes in riffing over the top. Obviously a 21 minute track has to progress, as in Prog-ress, like all great tracks that take up an entire side of an LP. The beat slows down as the bass mongs out on one note, before some slightly Phillip Glass-esque syncopated keys and vibes arpeggiate all over the place in a rather epic section. Everything then spanners out as if your stereo has broken, then these broken sounds are looped into their own groove, while more instruments are brought in, until this, too breaks down into an ultra-low, slow pulsing bass groove. An awesome track, an inspired construction.
The rest of the tracks are also excellent, combining clenched brain jazzism with piles of bass blocks and electronic smudges vibraphones and a lush closer. The desertified beauty of 'Along The Banks Of Rivers' soundtracking an imaginary western where all the protagonists are having an afternoon kip in a hammock for the film's duration.

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Deadbeat - New World Observer

Deadbeat is Scott Monteith's electronic dub project, and this 2005 release perfectly encapsulates the gorgeous blend of surging bass, sweet melody, and shimmering ambience that is his trademark sound. Right from the beginning 'Slow Rot From Rhetoric' has a wispy, delayed weave of electronic sounds that builds up to the introduction of a gloriously monstrous bass throb, upon which a sweet, simple melody is introduced on a panned electric piano type keyboard, before the gently rocking rhythm sweeps the track away. The effect is head-nodding, blissful and spacious; yet the manipulation of reverb and delay, and various other knob twiddlery keeps the ears on their toes, so to speak, and keeps things interesting like the best dub should. 'Port Au Prince' introduces some spacy female vocals, some more glitch, and some chopped acoustic guitar samples. A faster, dancehall-styled beat gives the track a more propulsive edge, as it does on 'Texas Tea', but neither track really enters clubbable territory. The multi layered glittering, pointillistic bed of ambient sound that cocoons every track reaches a dense climax on the final, virtually beatless closer 'Habitat For Heavy Hearts', as cavernous and slightly mournful stabs fade into silence.

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Lee Perry - Produced & Directed By The Upsetter

This is probably my favourite Lee Perry compilation. Although Arkology was really thorough, and has some stupendous music on it (notably Junior Murvin's 'Tedious', which has the incredible dubbed out section that isn't on the current cd), it was just a bit overwhelmingly large. What makes this one so good is the strength of the individual songs as much as Perry's studio wizardry. The production varies from the economical and punchy, to the spacious and weird, as you would expect, but every song is excellent, with some superb horn arrangements and vocal harmonies. The vocalists on here range from well known acts like Junior Murvin and The Heptones, to more obscure names like Winstone Heywood and King Burnett. I can't help thinking of the fantastic film Rockers when I listen to these lesser known artists - they knew they had a great song, probably had to fight to get it recorded, and made bugger all money out of it. The lyrical subjects runs the gamut, from relationship traumas, to problems with the police, to politics, and serve up a brilliant snapshot of Jamaica in the mid 70s. Of course, there is a dub for every song, but I think the great element of Perry's genius demonstrated on this disc is his ability to complement the vocal versions with perfect backing tracks.
Also, this one is worth downloading for the utterly amazing 'Guide Line' by George Faith. Apparently this was from an album which he recorded in 1978, just before Lee Perry lost the plot in a big way and burned down the studio. Most of this album was never released, which is a terrible shame.

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Rhythm & Sound - The Versions

2003 compilation of tracks previously released on vinyl. R&S are the dub incarnation of Basic Channel - Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, and have released a succession of spellbinding dub discs since 1996; they have been one of the most consistent acts of the decade, and this is one of my favourite albums of teh last 100 years. There is a sister album to this - "With The Artists", which has the full vocal versions, and is brilliant. This album, though, is utterly sublime. Adorned with only minor snippets - the perfect amount - of the original vocals, the rock solid rhythms, subtle tunes, and brilliant textures are allowed to gently work themselves into your consciousness. Most tracks are fairly skeletal, usually only have two chords, and very minimal bass lines; but they all totally rock. The use of reverb and delay is masterful; the hi-hat sounds are perfection and the grooves are unstoppable. Despite being largely electronic creations, an organic warmth permeates this wonderful album.
All their output that I've heard is worth checking out, including the albums 'Rhythm & Sound', and 'Showcase' with Tikiman.

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Terminal Cheesecake - Pearlesque Kings Of The Jewmost

Another slagheap of monolithic pounding industrial sludge dub, from 1992. Relentless bass, tons of reverb, drug references aplenty and some terrific samples - the usual excellent concoction. 'Satan Is Real' calls to mind Butthole Surfers, as does a lot of the album, which is of course a very good thing - with a blasting drum machine, and manic samples "I've got The craziest feeling all over my body" and "Satan!" hammering away at your senses, with some great grinding guitar that punctuates most of the album. 'Drug' is a superb psych-dub monster, smeared with delayed vocals and some space rock keyboards. It's all pretty great, really - there are some choice spoken word recordings from British TV news reports about various freakery, which only adds to the whole fucked up sense of abandon and joyous noise.
A shame that they can't reform for a few live shows, when there are so many unremarkable bands doing it these days.

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Terminal Cheesecake - Gateau D'Espace

1992 EP of psychedelic industrial dub. A blend of pounding bass and drums, with heavily echoed shouty vocals, some grinding noisy bits, and primitive samples and loops forming a sludgy mass. Primitive is a great word for this band, as is monolithic. There is a kind of bloody mindedness that propels these cavernous grooves. I wish I'd seen this mob live, but I was too busy getting into techno at the time. I'm sure they would have been bowel-quakingly intense. Track titles give you a clue to their influences: 'Oily Bud', 'Herbal Alien Flavour', 'Extra Oily'. If you think they are heading into weed-nerd territory, they reveal the lack of seriousness with 'Blatant Drug Reference' and it's sampled chant of 'Marijuana'. Although they began as more of a noise rock band, I thought they really hit on a good formula with this relentless dub weirdness.
Excellent cover art is by Jim Sawers, who used to work at Tower Records when I did, in a different department. A top bloke - he's actually responsible for me owning the Bill Laswell album I posted a while back, too.

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Disrupt - Foundation Bit

Disrupt is a one man digital dubmeister. Some purists are put off by any digital element in dub, but as far as I'm concerned: if it rocks it rocks, like this album does. Jan Gleichman (Mr Disrupt) can create great grooves, and they are embellished superbly with the requisite space invader noises, odd edits, and plenty of echo. On top of this are some great film samples, from Tron (the brilliant 'Blast You To Bits') and Dark Star. The bass is unashamedly digital, but this just means that they shake the room all the more when you turn up the volume. Great spaced out fun.

Disrupt has a 2009 album out, called The Bass Has Left The Building. I fell asleep halfway through listening to it last night, but was thoroughly enjoying it, especially the samples from classic arcade game Berserk. Check out the Jahtari website - they have a flash player where you can listen to the entire catalogue, and the website design is a smart tribute to all things 80s digital.

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Dub Syndicate - Ital Breakfast

Excellent 1996 album by Style Scott's heavy roots band. Mostly dub, with a smattering of vocal interjections, from I-Roy, Lee Perry, as well as some nice chorus touches.
I had the privilege of standing behind Adrian Sherwood at the controls as he did the live mix for Mark Stewart and The Mafia a few years back. It was brilliant, and his production style is marvellous.


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