Groundation – Dub Wars (Young Tree Records)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 2/8/06
First dub record by this established Bay Area reggae band – features very impressive guest vocalists (see below track list), although many vocals are buried in dub. Most songs are well over 5 minutes long, so it’s a good thing to keep handy for bathroom breaks. By and large the instrumentation is very spare and the general feel quite “relaxed” even if the beat is somewhat uptempo. After a while it does kinda all sound the same, but a single cut, if you’re feeling kinda mellow, is really nice.
No FCCs (barely any comprehensible vocals.) I liked 2, 3, 10 but the cuts sound a lot alike, and nothing is bad, so just pick one and go…
1. 7:04 starts out slow and rather “smooth jazz-y”, slowly builds dub effects and gets a beat rolling. Odd vocals & horn solo.
2. **5:51 (DC, CM) very cool midtempo beat, fun interplay of vocals.
3. **5:32 (DC, CM) another cool beat, but slower, lots of vibrato and effects. Cuica and other fun noises, not much of what you’d call singing.
4. 6:42 mid-to-uptempo, odd vocals and female chorus in distance, completely crazed keyboards,
5. 5:27 downtempo with some preaching and street noises.
6. 7:11 jungle beat turns into nyahbinghi drumming, very mellow but still with odd noises disturbing the peace. Drumming builds in intensity. A somewhat abstract piece.
7. 5:51 (DC) downtempo, vocals dubbed to death.
8. 6:03 (AG) downtempo with a bit of swing in the keyboards
9. 4:47 (AG) SLOW, mysterious, builds considerably in tempo and intensity.
10. **6:05 (DC, AG) starts with unrecognizable talking, then slow nyabinghi drumming and keyboard chords, weird noises.
(DC: Don Carlos of Black Uhuru; CM: Cedric Myton of the Congos; AG: Apple Gabriel of Israel Vibration)