With 1,5 million inhabitants, Yekaterinburg is the fourth largest city in Russia. Named after Tsarina Catherine I and the patron saint of miners, Saint Catherine, it lies on the Trans-Siberian Railway and forms the imaginary border between Europe and Asia.
The ska band Lollypop Lorry, founded in 2008, comes from this Ural region, which is quite remote for us. The band's logo shows the Lollypop Lorry - a UAZ 452 Buchanka, the Russian answer to the Wolfsburg bus and delivery van (Bulli).
The first publication of Lollypop Lorry: Goes Dub (Jump Up! Records) in 2020, the Dubblog as well as the re-release in 2022. But better late than never, I will briefly introduce you to this album, which was created between August 2018 and October 2019. An album that is really popular with me at the moment. Of the nine tracks, eight are jazz standards that are part of the ska, reggae/Dub & Latin Jazz Ensemble has congenially laid down deeper for our ears. The album was mixed by Victor Rice in his Studio Copan in São Paulo. The Dubs are by Ivan Gogolin, who produced the album together with Maxim Koryagin. The two musicians are also responsible for the arrangements, which are very varied. It starts with a Miles Davis standard, followed by “Dizzy Dub“ based on a musical template by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. The best thing about it is that the band has seamlessly incorporated Aston Barrett’s bassline from “Lively Up Yourself”. Simply magical! John Coltrane’s “Blue Train” becomes the “Dub >7< Train”. The absolute highlight of the album for me is “Take Faya”, where we hear the old Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond classic “Take Five” as well as “Dub Fire” by Aswads: A New Chapter of Dub What more can I say? Both the basslines and the DubI like it all the way through – in short, a great album that I discovered far too late.
One response to “Lollypop Lorry: Goes Dub"
And lemmi speaks up again from the back row and snaps his fingers while waving his arms wildly and gesticulating. "I also have the 'Heavenless Riddim' by 'Mr. Dub“ heard it!” “Yo, great lemmi, then go get yourself a cookie and keep being happy.”
Actually, I hear in almost every DubTune here a bass line from Jamaica, but can't assign it any further.
I also think it's great that something other than bombing the women and children of Ukraine is coming out of Russia. Apart from the Ukrainian soldiers.
I am therefore all the more sorry that I am responsible for this DubTunes here can not muster much enthusiasm. If I just DubVersion of “Lively Up Yourself” by the Wailers for comparison, I come up with these Dubs not going anywhere here or something like that. When Tony Gad from ASWAD uses the bias line of “Promise Land”,
or. "DubFire", it sounds much more powerful and dynamic to me than it comes across here with Lollypop Lorry. And the Heavenless Riddim has also been copied and reinterpreted much better for my taste. It's hard for me to describe what exactly I'm missing here, but it feels as if the entire rhythm foundation is built on sand and somehow slips away with every movement. The drums also stick stoically to the one drop inna rocksteady style, but for my taste they set far too few accents and seem a bit tired to me, or at least are unable to do anything about my tiredness.
I suspect that the band has simply spent far too long with jazz and hasn't quite got the hang of reggae yet.
Sorry but I'm missing something ……………… lemmi