Premonition

Drastics, the – Premonition (Jump Up)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 12/7/05
“Instrumental dub” band with some guest singer/toasters. Notable for recreating the crazy studio mix effect of dub live by fading their own instruments in and out and using some onstage effects.
No FCC. Mostly instrumentals anyway. Most cuts excellent dub, the only cuts I DON’T like are 7, 9, and 10. 11 and 12 are same as 1 and 2 but chattier; 12 ends early.
1. 4:58 **note: slow build with drums at start. Nice hard bubble with biting drum and growling horns. Slow fade with echo at end.
2. 4:20 **another slow build with random noises and record scratches. Rather downtempo skank with lots of echo on the tom. Bits of melodica and spaghetti. Spare and reverb-y.
3. 3:53 **tons of echo everywhere, including vocalist. Downtempo with low-key keyboards and horns.
4. 4:48 **another slow start with a few random drumbeats. Into more downtempo dub – mostly drums at start. Very spare dub, cool jazzy horn line, HUGE echo.
5. 5:49 **uptempo, almost ska, although dubbiness makes it a little more laidback. Loungey guitar. Crash at ending.
6. 5:44 **midtempo skank, cool bass, bit of piano and melodica. Rap comes in almost 2 minutes in, mean streets stuff. Nice sax.
7. 5:38 starts with long handdrum roll, into very lazy, downtempo vibe more smooth jazz than reggae. I guess the title relates to the windows on the limo…
8. 5:34 **tough midtempo vibe with toasting (Dr. Ring Ding is popular German dancehall DJ), cool horns. Shifts to uptempo, spare, vocals upfront and less dubby.
9. 4:50 starts with random speaking, dub effects, instruments come in very slowly, downtempo beat starts at one minute in. rather random vox and instrument, very jazzy alto sax. VERY slow fade.
10. 5:17 starts random, dubby, goes into downtempo, laid back rock steady groove. Ends 20 seconds short, goes into rain sounds.
11. 4:59 **”version” of track 1, with lots of toasting throughout. Midtempo, noisy.
12. 5:35 **”version of track 2”, spoken intro, nice hard riddim, toasting throughout. Ends rather horribly more than a minute from stated ending time.
13. 0:31 half a minute of skankin and toastin