Down In Santa Cruz

Dub Congress – Down in Santa Cruz (Large Scale)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 11/11/05
Santa Cruz white reggae band – with nice phat production. Having lived in SC during the heyday of the hippy stoner reggae band era (think Grateful Dead with one-drop), I was prepared for this CD to suck, but it’s not only competent and credible musically but well produced with thick layers of music on most tracks. Similar in sound to reggae coming out of Germany these days. A few duff tracks, but a few real standouts and positive overall.
FCC: track 8 “that’s fucked up” “shit’s going down”
I like 7, 12, and 15 best. I don’t recommend 10 and 14.
1. MC introduces band in concert
2. **downtempo, reverby, cool alto sax, militant sound
3. midtempo, full horn section, all about Santa Cruz, sweet and beachy on the surface, but actually funny and a bit sarcastic.
4. *midtempo bubble with reverb and flute, toast about pot bust with Dr. Alimantado-like delivery.
5. *downtempo dub of the above. Good and dubby, mostly riddim section with random noises and a ton of reverb.
6. horn section/melodica intro to track 7 take it or leave it – fine either way.
7. ***wah wah! Midtempo, sound goofy and phat at the same time. Sweet singing. Crucial dub towards end, long fade.
8. **FCC. random start with helicopter noises, cool rap, militant sound, scratch ‘n’ horns, funky. Gets random again at end.
9. **downtempo, sweet-sounding bubble with a fair bit of dub. Impassioned singing about bloodshed. Slow fade.
10. downtempo, almost smooth jazz. Rather groovy rap. Odd transition to another groove a minute from end.
11. strong one-drop in praise of pot (hippy stoners will never die…) Somewhat goofy lyrics.
12. ***Dub of track 11. Much better with less singing and more weird noises!
13. **“Hey! Why are we having this party?” Spare music, funny rap. Goofy and fun in a good way.
14. downtempo, too sweet love song – I couldn’t make it through this one. You need a high saccharine tolerance.
15. ***midtempo dubby dub dub of track 2, good bounce and burble.
16. **rubber band dub of track 3.