Dub Syndicate: Fear of a Green Planet (2023)

In 1998 Style Scott founded his own label in collaboration with the Berlin distributor EFA Lion And Roots. The first two releases were two Dub Syndicate albums: “Mellow and Colly” and “Fear of a Green Planet”. Conceived as a “sound clash” between London and New York, they were based on the same eight riddims that Scott had recorded as usual with bassists Flabba Holt and Bagga Walker in Kingston. “Mellow and Colly” was mixed in New York by Scientist. “Green Planet”, with two additional riddims and two slightly longer versions, was a 360° On-U-Sound production, but also contained a souvenir from New York: Bill Laswell added an over theredub a bassline. To this day I'm not sure which one. In the USA, the album was released with an alternative cover that rather bluntly referenced Public Enemy's “Fear of a Black Planet”. And that's a bit misleading, because at first glance DS continued the cozy course on “Green Planet” that they had established in 1996 with Ital Breakfast, their last album on On-U Sound for the time being. The Japanese punk kids from Audio Active were now up to mischief there, and Style Scott had just previously recorded an adorable atomic-apocalyptic album with Bill Laswell on Word Sound, which had almost no harmonics or melodies. On the other hand, “Green Planet” was a bit like a hippie camp. Tablas, violins, languid melodies and sayings from the Rasta poetry album, the riddims with the exception of one (“Wake Up”) all closer to lovers rock than to the dancehall present, all seemed a bit underwhelming to me at this stage of my life. Nevertheless, I always returned to this Soundclash double album, played the versions individually or as an album back to back and enjoyed the different mixing approaches. While “Mellow & Colly” was sparsely and leanly equipped, I also came to appreciate more and more the calmness and sovereignty that characterize the production of “Green Planet”. The remastered re-release of “Fear of a Green Planet(Echo Beach) on the 25th anniversary makes these strengths, if anything, stand out even more clearly. The production is, as the English would say, “lush”, that is, in the landscape sense, in full juice. Everything flows, drips, blossoms and pollinates each other in this pastoral idyll where there seems to be no struggle for survival, only harmony. Garden of Eden instead of jungle. The sounds don't clash, they respectfully surround each other in an oceanic offbeat current, without ever washing away the boundaries of kitsch. Although everyone may draw their own boundaries. The spiritual highlight is the actually wordless “Not a Word” with its goosebumps violin, after which the tempo increases with a stepper (“Dubbing Is a Must”) and a dancehall riddim (“Wake Up”) slightly increased. From here it only gets deeper and more minimalist: “Hey Geoff” is reminiscent of his colleagues Tackhead and Little Ax with its vocal samples, and of “Stoned Immaculate” in its extreme airiness. The versions of “Higher and Higher” and especially “Emmanuel” impress with their technical reduction. This fantastic final track is supplemented on the re-issue by three extended loop mixes that broaden the enjoyment a bit. Here, passages from the master were apparently looped and reworked more or less creativelydubbt, so not much new is happening, just a little more. The fourth and most meaningful supplement is a remix of “Dubvionist” Felix Wolter. Based on “Greater David”, it is a bit out of the sound picture with a lot of tape saturation, but it forms a worthy conclusion. But these four new versions do not change the impulse to put on “Mellow and Colly” immediately afterwards. Because of the slim Scientist mixes, which have less overdubs and gave more space to the vocals (including Junior Reid and Big Youth) in the discomix process, the entire Soundclash experience becomes really three-dimensional. They also know this at Echo Beach. The re-issue should come in the new year.