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Bill Laswell:
Version 2 Version: A Dub Translation
There are really two things to talk about here. There are the musicians on this release and their history; and then you have the music contained on this album. Thankfully both are very interesting and deserve a moment or two of your attention. First off, Bill Laswell has some impressive musicians working with him on this album. Bernie Worrell used to play in George Clintons Parliament & Funkadelic, Karsh Kale has worked with Talvin Singh, and Jah Wobble used to play bass in early/good Public Image Limited circa Metal Box as well as fronting his own band Invaders of The Heart, whove had some very strong releases as well. Then, Bill himself has worked with about 30 folks youd probably recognize, but Ill just throw out a few: The Swans, Miles Davis, Motorhead, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Marley. Amidst these frequent collaborations, he has also racked up a number of record releases that would be categorized as dub music. Now Im no expert on the history of dub, but who hasnt bought an electronic single and found some sort of dub mix on it before, right? Well watch out, because the word dub gets bastardized beyond belief. Off the top of my head, original dub seemed to come from Jamaican artists like Lee Scratch Perry who spliced tape recordings together in some novel fashion. In the techno and pop world, it might as well stand for Dumb Unlistenable Bullshit, if you dont mind my saying. Thats because most techno and pop songs have structure, while dub recordings are meandering and structureless, so its no surprise when a dub remix seems to remove the chorus and climax of a song just to focus on the groove, which in many songs is nonexistent to begin with. Thats where the musicians here make all the difference. Im guessing that either Laswell or Wobble are playing the bass lines, but whoever it is, the bass comes to life in a jazzy sort of way, while the keyboards and guitar funk remain subtly arranged in the background. Version 2 Version sounds like a bass heavy version of The Orb, one of the few artists I listen to regularly that were massively influenced by dub music. So we have six instrumental songs averaging 8 minutes in length, and the whole album seems to mellow you out like a solid ambient release with a little dose of funk. I like it, especially songs like Night City, which remind me of an old Astralasia album Im quite fond of. Im a bit less scared of dub music than I used to be after listening to this album, and I think the key is to search out the premiere artists in this genre before you judge your own affinity to the style. That being said, Bill Laswell and Version 2 Version seems like a pretty good place to start.
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