Customer Reviews

Fly Fishing Video Magazine Vol.62 South Fork - Snake River Idaho [VHS]

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

 

 

The name of the album is misleading; it has preciously little to do with drum&bass. I was attracted by Howie B's name, but found a weird electronic dub album instead. But boy is this good. The incredible driving bass lines are, for me, what makes almost all the songs. All the other effects and fantastic rhythms put on top of it take this album into outer space. For me, this album is the best release of 1998.

True, this album is not "Drum & Bass" but what it is is the worlds greatest rhythm section doing what they do best - constructing simple but effective grooves of a calibre up there with their best. If your looking for songs or goldie rip offs then look elsewhere but if you want to know what reggae/dub rhythms should sound like at the end of the millenium then this is the disk for you. It flags a bit in the middle but overall this is a good album. Howie B and the guitarist add some nice touches without being overbearing but this is the world's best doing what they do best.

It's good to hear Sly & Robbie go wicked with Howie B behind the boards. The term Drum & Bass is NOT misleading, and if you think it is you either don't know who Sly & Robbie are or don't know a thing about classic Dub/Reggae terminology.

One quality album from two very distinct outfits. Howie twiddles things slightly but with great effect.

PS: if you think this took 10 minutes to make, you are seriously ignorant.

Reggae dub veterans Sly and Robbie brought in Howie B to produce this CD in '98 to give their classic sound a more contemporary feel. The result is a meshing of styles that brings the dynamic dub duo to a new audience that is more familar with drum and bass. A very good effort is the end result of this merger. The typical dub drum and bass lines are further accentuated by the additonal guitars that come on strong, clanking as cold steel vibes or droping out completely. This is not the usual fare for long time fans of Sly and Robbie as this CD ventures into new territory. The production technuiques of Howie B are masterful and add to the mix. Rare are the moments when it sounds like just another Sly and Robbie dub album, the presence of Howie B is unmistakeable. This is a good thing too, it infuses new energy into a already great sound. It's like "new and improved" only it really is! Notable songs include "Exodub implosion" which sounds like "Exodus" by Bob Marley but with a darker techno thrust that propells the song into territories unnknown, crashing on the listeners ears like a funky cyborg nightmare. "Zen Concrete" starts out with jazzy vibes that pick up with the drum and bass lines, falling in and out, echoeing and crunching a beat. "Ballistic Squeeze" sounds like Pink Floyd with dread locks, fueled by an atomic dub cocktail and driven by sonicbeats. This is good stuff for long time fans of Jamaicans Sly and Robbie as well as those drawn to drum and bass via the production skills of Howie B.

This is the disc that's in my cd player the most this week. Howie B was already something else, but now he's taken Sly and Robbie out to his realm with him, and between them, they make the house shake. I've been featuring this disc on my shows on both GoGaGa.com and aminoRadio.com since we got it in the studios. If you liked any of Howie B's previous works, and you like the experiments in dub fostered by the folks now at Palm Pictures, you've got to get this disc.

Sly & Robbie are back with DUB. My all time favorite duo have done it again. Unlike dub albums of their past this one has a faster beat. More in tune with todays music. Its is great and I hope they put out another one soon. I'm sure to buy it.

It's totally worth it to spend the few extra bucks for the dvd because you'll get not only both pcm and 5.1 audio tracks of the album (albeit in a different track sequence), but you'll also get some enticing yet spazticly edited strip tease videos with each song. It's electro dub soft core porn that nearly half of the adult portion of the entire family can enjoy together or individually. Use it with the tv off to demo your sound system in 5.1 mode. Rip the pcm track for your iPod or whatever.

Regarding strictly the music on this audio disc, it's definitely worth using to mix things up a bit over a spliff with your mates, but it's a bit of a novelty and that precludes it from attaining that Amazonian pinnacle of 5 starity.

I have heard bits of this album and I'm familiar with Sly & Robbie, so I give it 4 stars. But people have to start realizing that the term 'Drum&Bass' doesn't just refer to a type of techno, its an old Dub reggae term for, literally, the drum and bass tracks that are brought up in the mix on the song. The title wasn't really misleading, its just that a lot of people forgot or don't know the lingo. The boys brought in Howie so that some new blood would be injected into the scene, I'm sure that they want to keep growing and making better dubplates on into the future. The old sounds are always going to be classic, but to put some newer, never-heard-before albums out is what musicians do!

THIS IS NOT DRUM AND BASS. It has no substance, or content. It must have taken the computer ate least 10 minutes to write all of the tracks. Do yourself a favour, don't buy it!