Dennis Bovell reports with “Wise Music in Dub" (Wise Records) and delivers a Dub-album, which reflects not only his decades of experience, but also his penchant for authentic songs and catchy melodies. For his 72nd birthday, he presents himself – and us – with a collection of eleven DubVersions ranging from soul templates to doo-wop to protest songs – all characterized by a sound that is optimistic, sun-drenched, and cheerful. Quite untypical for Dub: free of heaviness and gloom. Bovell brought an impressive ensemble into the studio – from Papa Dee to Brinsley Forde to Carroll Thompson – and worked on exactly the pieces he himself wanted to play. That he didn't care one bit about current Dub-Trends is the greatest compliment one can pay the album. Its approach has a genuine old-school charm: Bovell plays reggae as if the last 40 years simply hadn't happened. No modular fiddling, no futuristic effects, no typical DubMixing – but handmade rhythms, familiar melodies, lots of singing and a lot of heart and soul. This is precisely why the album seems so credible: “Wise Music In Dub"That doesn't sound like a nostalgic throwback, but rather like a man who doesn't have to pretend. He does what he enjoys, what makes him groove—and what probably also reminds him of the good old days when reggae was still popular in the UK—and he's right in the middle of it all.
Not every track is equally captivating – "You're A Big Girl Now," for example, drifts dangerously close to the edge of kitsch – but it is precisely these bumps that give the album character. Bovell is at his strongest when he relies on his own unique style: when Carroll Thompson Dub-version of Les Fleurs floats when Swizz the Panist makes the steel pans glow or when a simple offbeat suddenly becomes a time machine. "Wise Music In Dub“ is a musical walk through Bovell’s head and heart.
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Dennis Bovell: Wise Music in Dub
2 Responses to “Dennis Bovell: Wise Music in Dub"
For me, Dennis Bovell is not just a reggae musician, but much more a reggae authority. I don't know what I knew better, his DubMilestone in the name of Blackbeard “I wah Dubor the album "Bass Culture" by Linton Kwesi Johnson. The riddims he and his band recorded for LKJ are, for me, among the best I've ever heard as a reggae fan. And on top of that, this man radiated and still radiates that very healthy dose of "madness" that I wish for everyone. And the "I wah Dub“ album has my DubHorizon (which was still very limited for me at the tender age of 18) in a brilliant and very psychedelic way. I found this much more exciting than the Dubs of the Revolutionaries, who were also becoming more and more familiar to me at that time. However, it was the Dubs without Glen Brown. With Glen Brown, the Dubs by the Revolutionaries is really great but I only got to know them in the 21st century.
Dennis Bovell doesn't need to follow trends because HE IS THE TREND! He sets standards that we can orient ourselves by. He belongs to the Reggae / Dub – Producers and musicians who have set a bar that everyone else out there today can't quite manage. His brain just hasn't been blinded by all this "important news" that humanity seems to be addicted to these days. The news itself doesn't seem to matter at all, as long as it's new.
And the fact that people also suffer from "FOMO" becomes downright ridiculous given all this unimportant and mostly half-true or even completely untrue news. I often feel like the "King of the Earth" because I haven't succumbed to this nonsense. The cell phone is and will always be a Walkman with which I can make phone calls and nothing else. I don't need an app to shit... okay, that's not the issue here. And I don't need to be reminded 20 times a day about a so-called summit meeting that will ultimately achieve absolutely nothing. This is nothing new! It's always been like this! (But that's not the issue here either).
Unfortunately, I still can't say much more about the album than that I find it quite nice. Yes, it is, above all, free of "heaviness and gloom," but Dubs in a dark way, I only know from Alpha and Omega, although I actually avoid them completely. I feel DubMusic is always uplifting, with a fair amount of joy in playing, both on the instruments and at the mixing desk. But A&O gives me "depression." (I have to get that off my chest every now and then.) To anyone who doesn't feel that way, I can only congratulate them on their mental strength ;-)
I also keep realizing that I don't have such a big problem with "kitsch," because I even find "You're a big girl now" quite nice ;-) ………
Yes, that was more of a little homage to Dennis Bovell than to this album. And of course, I couldn't resist dissing everyone who, instead of Dub and reggae would rather shove their thumbs around on a "display" until it catches fire. Actually, I think they're all crazy, but unfortunately, the people I love do it too...
“Really and Truly” ………………….. lemmi
I'm going into goal …………….. lemmi
Same