Customer Reviews

Dub Selector 3 (Dig)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great compilation! If you've been fed up with boring repetitive and unimaginative stuff that's been coming from Jamaica in recent years, this is your chance to get those basslines rumblin with fantastic production, lyrics and songwriting. Dub Selector vol.3 features the cream of today's dub/reggae/electronica artists and also some new (and fantastic) names for me. The original albums from Boozoo Bajou, Fat Freddy's Drop, Noiseshaper and Djosos Krost are all in my Top 5 list of this genre, so this compilation is a real gem for those who share the same taste in music but haven't got a chance to discover these exciting artists. Tracks featured here are both for chilling and dancing, and guaranteed to put you into some serious headnodding :) A real quality release from the quality label!

I cannot be too specific on the music of this CD. (I have not listened to it yet.) In general terms, I "expect" it to be similar in "Quality" to the previous "Selector" releases. I enjoy Dub and (lately) Reggae. (They are of the same branch of the musical tree, I think.) I am of the age and consciousness that no chemicals/herbs are needed to assist in the enjoyment of the music. Musical mind, musical ear (they are connected.) It is more the times I/we are living in (economics and the nightly news, radio talk and politics.) The CD---4.5 to 5 stars. (For the musical course and the times.)

DUB SELECTOR 3: Well, I liked parts one and two in this series, so the outlook is good for volume three - without delay, let's push play and see what happens!

Boozoo Bajou's nice collaboration with Joe Dukie (of Fat Freddy's fame) and veteran deejay U Brown, TAKE IT SLOW, makes for a rather laid-back opener, but the pace picks up right away with Dukie and friends returning for the rocking ROADY, which also appeared on Fat Freddy's excellent BASED ON A TRUE STORY album last year. Next up, Ms. Dynamite teams with a sampled Ken Boothe for the solid R&B-meets-reggae style FALL IN LOVE AGAIN, before Junkyard Productions try something similar with SISTER LET HIM GO, which is also nicely done and gets extra credit for rewinding and relicking the rhythm for an extended, speaker-destroying dubwise discomix.

The rap-reggae crossover is a notoriously hit-and-miss phenomenon, but Freddie Cruger and ADL pull it off convincingly on the sizzling RUNNING FROM LOVE, which easily outmaneuvers Noiseshaper's unremarkable remix of Sly and Robbie's VICE VANITY. Then it's back to business with Djosos Krost's wicked COVER ME, featuring the sultry Lil' Tasha, probably my favourite selection here - well nice! Re:Jazz's remixed TORCH OF FREEDOM is also very good, with nice horns overdubs on a proper reggae rhythm, but Cottonbelly's reworking of Esthero's FASTLANE is mostly just weird - not unlistenable by any means, but definitely not my cup of cocoa. Rounding off this third edition is Seven Dub's lush RUNNING AWAY (again, remixed by Noiseshaper, this time to much greater effect), probably the closest thing here to the traditional dub sound, and finally, Djosos Krost again, taking a deep, dark acid trip to a BETTER PLACE - a long way from raggae, but I liked it anyway.

In fact, I think that sums up DUB SELECTOR 3 quite nicely. It's dub, but not as you know it, a truly horizon-expanding chop-up of reggae, soul, hip-hop and electronica that somehow comes out just right when you toss it all in the echo chamber together. Definitely recommened.