Pinnacle Sound: In Dub, vol. 1

Released in the last few meters of 2023, the album “In Dub, Vol. 1” (Bat Records) from Pinnacle Sound is one of the highlights of the year for me. Okay, I've criticized the retro sound often enough and in fact you can ask yourself how much sense there is in recreating the sound of historical reggae styles. But on the other hand, the historical material is already limited in terms of quantity - not to mention the sound quality. So when new music is created in a historical style, it can easily be dismissed as eclectic or historicist, but at the same time it can be wonderful music. Maybe it would help to delete the “historical” and simply take the style for what it is, without any implicit judgment: a characteristic sound form. So what if we understood “Early Reggae” simply as a musical style with no historical dimension? As well as z. B. Steppers or One Drop? Although the comparison is flawed, it would be a welcome solution to my dilemma that I like Pinnacle Sound's new work so much - even though it is historical early reggae in its purest form. I love the album: the sound is so irresistibly fresh, so energetic and so catchy that it is a pure joy - and any academic discussion about the justification of eclecticism is forbidden. Apart from that, “In Dub, Vol. 1” a quality of Dub, as it did not exist 50 years ago.

My new favorite album has been released on Bat-Records, the small studio and label based in Clermont-Ferrand that, in addition to Pinnacle Sound, also owns Dub Shepherds belong. Both creators of beautiful retro reggae. In the present case Dub album have Pinnacle Sound and the Dub Shepherds worked together congenially, after all it is about them Dub-Version of the Pinnacle album “Soul Medicine” from 2022, which was released at the time by the Dub Shepherds was mixed (and probably also recorded). What could be closer than that? Dub-Mix to put into the hands of the shepherds? And they did a fantastic job. If you wanted to explain what in a music seminar Dub then you would only need the track “Psam 2” from “Dub Medicine” play and then the Dub-Put on the “Psalm 150” version. The seminar could remain wordless, because... Dub gets to the heart of what our favorite music is all about: using the mix to create a completely unique piece of music. The difference between the two psalms – despite the identical material basis – could not be greater.

Even if the psalm is something very special, the album is convincing throughout its entire length. Everyone Dub is a through-composed piece of music with wonderful arrangements, great melodies and good mix ideas that go far beyond the (sparing) use of reverb and echo. A mix that gives the pieces a real dramaturgy - like a meta-arrangement. I'm glad that this album was released in 2023, because in this way I can fervently and with full conviction contradict gtk's thesis that the annual output in 2023 is bad.