To anticipate: Sly & Robbie were the best, most innovative and most playful drum & bass duo - even if others like Style Scott and Flabba Holt sometimes did a much cleaner job, but never achieved cross-genre recognition. Sly & Robbie, on the other hand, were booked worldwide to support pop and rock greats such as Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Serge Gainsbourg and many more in the studio or live. There is no question that they also developed the reggae genre significantly with their riddims.
But that was in the late 70s and early 80s of the last century; the times of musical innovations and new musical territory are over for the two of them. Sly & Robbie seem to be trapped in a time bubble today: They reproduce their own musical past and more or less celebrate the riddims that made them the musical spearhead of reggae in the past.
So also on their new release "Sly & Robbie Dub Serge"(Taxi Records), for whom they are nothing more than their own riddims from the excellent Serge Gainsbourg album"Aux Armes Et Caetera“(1979) have recorded again. Why? Only Guillaume Bougard knows that, who works here as co-producer and, together with Gaylord Bravo, the uninspired Dub-Mix is responsible. There could be no need for these bloodless, endlessly rolled out and at best boring versions, especially since the original album (as well as its successor) has been considered in recent years Deluxe- and Super deluxe Version including Dubs was published.
So the question is: do you need this new album? Absolutely, if you want to hear how two excellent musicians dismantle their life's work. Otherwise: Hands off it and listen to one of the many brilliant Sly & Robbie albums from the 1980s instead. How about the epochal “A Dub Experience ”from Iceland's“ Reggae Greats ”series?
12 replies to "Sly & Robbie: Dub Serge"
High gtkriz!
We disagree again. When I came to my office on Friday, this new one was running Dub Slice in your list and I had no idea who it could be again. Although you can see that very quickly on the drums
can. Sly Dunbar's drums are not always so perfect in my opinion Dubcompatible. But still I was from the overall
impression of the Dubs I just heard very impressed. When I looked at the screen, I saw that it was a
new DubAlbum is about Sly and Robbie. I'm not that much of a Sly and Robbie fan DubBut here I actually thought that it would be one of the better ones again Dubdiscs is about Sly and Robbie. Anyway, I really like it. Sly Dunbar on drums shows a lot of his skills here but the boss here on the disc is Robbie Basspeare for me. I have a fantastic bass sound here. Feels like he's standing here in front of me in the office plucking his bass in person. The occasional “piano or keyboard implications” that are interspersed with the music always freshen up the pure drum and bass structure. Right now the “Javanese Dub“And I'm really excited. So as I said,
I like the disc.
I never heard of the Serge Gainsburg disc. The riddims are really great, but how Serge came to make a record with the Riddim Twins, I don't know.
Until ………………… lemmi
Holy BimBam, that reads like a musical accident. I need to hear it right now ??
"... but how Serge came to do a record with the Riddim Twins, I don't know."
Serge Gainsbourg, the enfant terrible of French chanson, put his penchant for reggae into practice in 1978, quickly flew to JA, took on the best reggae session band of the time including the I-Threes - money didn't matter - and recorded a really great reggae album. Apart from the fact that he once again brought the Grand-Nation to the barricades with the “disgrace” of the Marseillaise (aux armes et caetera). If I remember correctly, the album was even distributed by Philips / Phonogram, which shows that at the wedding of reggae, all the “big ones” in the record business wanted some of the fat cake.
I don't think the album is that bad. The reworking of an old album by the original line-up is actually not an uninteresting concept. But in fact the result could have been a little more “different” instead of “same, same”. But I'm doing such a real slap Dubblog is good too. Otherwise, we usually review it here very benevolently.
"Otherwise we usually review here extremely benevolently."
That’s in the nature of things for me. Why should I take the time to review an album if I don't like it anyway. That borders on masochism and that's why I don't have to do that to myself voluntarily. It used to be a completely different matter, so I was very grateful if you got the tip to first listen to the LP before you spend your scraped up pocket money on the cat. Today it is completely different, since everyone can easily form their own opinion. That's why I take a very pragmatic view and only discuss what I personally like. It's great, of course, when I'm at Dubblog readers can get interested in the album. That alone is my intention.
I'm naturally extremely lazy when it comes to research. I think I'm just missing a certain gene.
That's why I'm asking the question whether it is Dubs by Sly and Robbie, mixed by Scientist,
or were produced. I have the feeling that Sly and Robbie always give their riddims to people who are for Dub
have no feeling at all. Since there is an exception to the rule here too, I would like to start working with DubRemember Matix. Strangely enough, the disc also has a “kind of weird sound”. Sounds like that. as if mastering
the toilet flush would have run. Sometimes the sound really "mocks" me. That's what the music, the riddims and the Dubbut games are so good that I simply ignore the “mocky sound”. Still, I wonder why there isn't a single one
Dubdisc by Sly and Robbie, both sound wise and Dubtechnical in terms of imagination and inventiveness
completely convinced. In any case, I don't know any. The “A Dub Experience “leaves something to be desired for me.
There is (at least) one with a Mad Professor and everyone thinks they are good, but even that doesn't knock me out like that, for example
"Understanding what Dub is “by Prince Fatty.
It's not all evening yet. Maybe a Prince Fatty, a Poalo Baldini, a Richie Phoe or even the OberJedi Ritter Adrian Sherwood will take care of the matter. There are other good ones Dubwizzards but their names are not on the tip of my tongue (Gaudi for example) ……… Aldubb / Umberto Echo and the Dubvisionist must now definitely be mentioned. I notice that here in Germany we are actually very well “equipped” when it comes to sound magicians.
Certainly the best reggae musicians do not come from Germany, but we have the first-class technology that you need to produce the perfect and I really mean the perfect sound.
Aldubb certainly didn't just win this year because of the riddims. It simply delivers the incontestable sound and has the "right" DubGimmix with the right timing.
Sorry if I took the liberty of judging it like that, over and over again.
But basically everything sounds much worse than it is. I've come to my office here many times, mostly all day Dub runs and there were always the moments when I thought, “hey, what is that now for a great groove again
or Dub ? ”And it turned out to be one Dub by Sly and Robbie, whom I would have flushed in the toilet two days earlier.
But in the “Deep In Dub Playlist ”from gtkriz on Spotify has been on for a few days Dubs from Jonnygo Figure !!!
I just like MURDERSTYLE !!! Sound, groove and Dub in perfection. I'm blown away ! I'll get the entire showcase session because I'm good at the vocal versions too.
Until …………………… .. lemmi
Due to my stay abroad, I can unfortunately only contribute late. It's good that we started a little conversation about the reviewed release - just imagine, it's slated and nobody goes :)))… disaster in my industry :) Anyway, critical and controversial contributions ensure credibility of a medium, otherwise one drifts into the arbitrary insignificance of permanently enthusiastic, incapable of criticism and possibly Payola-driven amateur writers. I think we can all think of a website to which most of the things apply, although I do not want to subordinate this website to Payola.
It is of course difficult and also painful to write such a review - on the one hand because you can listen to your own musical heroes come to an age where they are only a copy of their former greatness; on the other hand, because there are of course things that are not mentioned or only hinted at in the review out of consideration. You write to present your own opinion combined with a certain objectivity and not to put someone in the pan - as much as you would like, especially in this case.
About the release itself ... it's boring, the playing technique is - as I suspect: age-related - simplified, and there can be no talk of fire. Of course, I see that in the context of the original 1979 release, which you can listen to in several versions and mixes. The album is a milestone - because of the musicians involved, the joy of playing and the audible energy, but also because of the temporal circumstances. In 1979 reggae was well on its way to becoming part of the mainstream - not only because of BMW & their consorts, but also because people with their finger on the pulse of the times took up the music and dared to jump into the deep end. One of them was certainly Gainsbourg, who, given his reputation, could be trusted to do so. It was still hip, and reggae got a huge push in francophone countries. Also a kind of quid pro quo, if you will. I don't want to go so far as to blame the Gainsbourg reggae releases for the popularity of music in France; but I suppose they had some part in it.
However ... if the review has caused readers to respond with "Dub Serge “discussed it more intensely or critically: Mission accomplished :)
"... although I do not want to assume that this website is Payola."
@gtkriz
You can assume 100% of this and should replace “want” with “must”.
What I do here as an “amateur writer” is voluntary. I guess that I have already extensively proven that I neither consume anything that is “permanently enthusiastic” nor uncritical and comment positively on what is presented to me. As already explained above. If I do something on the WWW. or (re) discover my archive, hopefully for some readers of the Dubblog could be of interest / relevance and / or open the gates of acoustic perception further, then I like to write about it. No more and no less. For me, negative reviews are not an indication of “the credibility of a medium”. Incidentally, you can achieve the same thing with negative reviews as with positive reviews, as the market has already confirmed thousands of times.
Ras Vorbei'You have misunderstood something: It’s neither explicit nor implicit dubblog.de or your letter.
As far as critical contributions and explicit points of view are concerned ... that's journalism / PR 101. If you see it differently, that's just the way it is.
I don't know what's wrong with that, aren't we all "amateur writers" who like to write about their hobby?
I'm not really interested in the relationship between journalism and public relations, sorry that's the way it is.
On the contrary, Ras Vorbei: We are not all amateurs who write about their hobby ... at least two professionals write here.
I mean, you seem to be confronting a lot about the conversation with me. You don't need that Ras Vorbei.
Oh sorry, I ask for your pardon for getting too close to you and calling you an "amateur writer". Then I have to relate your statement to myself all by myself. In any case, I didn't study journalism.
I don't go into confrontation, I just want to understand what I'm reading, c'est tout. "That I can see what holds the world together at heart" (Heinrich Faust)
With this in mind, I wish you a nice weekend