Campbell, Andrew Bassie – Live & Direct: Instrumental & Dub (Young Tree)
Reviewed by Sadie O., July 4, 2006
Roots Rock Reggae straight from Yard. “Instrumental and Dub” is true enough (“live” in the sense that it was recorded and mixed in one day at Tuff Gong Studios). Once again, Bassie got some of the best musicians in Jamaica, like Horsemouth Wallace and Chinna Smith, together and turned out some terrific musical sunshine.
No FCCs – no words! Everything is tasty and worth playing. I like the really dubby stuff – tracks 1, 4 and 12-13 tickle your ears! Even if you’re not smoking anything!
1. 4:33 ***relaxed bubble, great bits of dub
2. 3:47 *more aggressive, with strong guitar chords and boopy keyboards
3. 4:03 *pretty skank, sparing instrumentation, reverb-y
4. 3:55 ****slightly downtempo, almost bluesy, dub effects, some nyahbinghi drums
5. 5:13 **midtempo but upbeat and happy sounding skank
6. 4:25 *a bit uptempo, upbeat, lots of layers of different sounds with clear definition, rubber band guitar
7. 4:58 *a bit downtempo, relaxed, nice swing, a bit trance-inducing
8. 4:46 *downtempo skank, forceful yet a bit jazzy
9. 4:25 **midtempo skank, rootsy and sparse
10. 3:47 **midtempo skank with big sax
11. 4:13 ***midtempo bubble with sax and tingly bits
12. 4:38 ****remix of track 1, even dubbier!
13. 4:15 ***strong rubber band dub of track 2
14. 4:06 **pretty, boopy dub of track 3