By GRAHAM REID
Reggae and dub are so much part of the musical substructure now we hardly notice them any more. So it takes something special to alert us to its particular magic again.
Auckland's 95bFM DJ Stinky Jim manages to rediscover the old, introduce the new and showcase reggae and dub genius on a weekly basis on his Stinky Grooves programme. It's one to go out slow-driving to, or get horizontal around the house for. Jim also does the club-DJ thing, was part of Unitone HiFi, remixed for the unlikely likes of HDU and now appears as prime mover behind two excellent albums.
As a DJ, Jim brings together disparate threads to create something of an aural adventure. Now he's done that on disc.
Sideways (Round Trip Mars) is a superb collection of local talent woven together in a way not dissimilar to his bFM show but as a more conceptual statement about who and where we are in the world.
He has pulled together some remarkable tracks by the likes of Dooblong Tongdra, International Observer (former Thompson Twin and stellar* producer Tom Bailey with Rakai Karaitiana), Sola Rosa (whose Entrance to the Skyway EP won best independent release at the recent b. Net awards), and so on.
Sideways is an exceptional compilation and because none of it has worn smooth by familiarity, it fairly leaps off the disc, fresh every time.
It crosses between dub and bossa-lounge, surreptitious ambient grooves and scratching.
And it's one of those albums where God is in the details. Real tasty.
Between tracks Jim infiltrates voices and samples.
The whole thing opens with a canny slice'n'splice which references this part of the planet. It's very clever.
While Sideways can act as a sampler disc - can't wait to hear more from anyone on it - it also fits Brian Eno's conception of ambient music: it is as enjoyable as it is ignorable.
Put this on and pay close attention and you will be rewarded. Put it on and chat or sit in the sun and it's equally ideal.
Some of it, like Phase 5's Roll the Bones, is lounge music - if your lounge is the back garden.
And, quick as a lad, Stinky Jim and producer Angus McNaughton who are Phase 5 simultaneously release their debut album Space Bar (Round Trip Mars) which is a fine mix-up of dub textures, bossa grooves spiced with reggae and dub (sub)consciousness, and exotica touches.
Hard to know where to start introducing this one.
Is it the lounge-pop organ textures of Box Juice with its reggae groovilations and strange black panther growls? The two remixes of Mothman (the "skank" version by Wasabi Wake-Up, the totally reconstructed "skunk" version by Burnt Friedman)?
Or is it the slinky Afro-style insidiousness of the opener Realistic Biscuit? Or the 60s Bond-style soundtrack mellowness of Easy Gargamel which wouldn't have sounded out of place on Groove Armada's Vertigo?
Whichever it is, Space Bar is the ideal companion volume to Sideways.
These are two shiny discs to discover and delight in.
Guitarist Ernest Ranglin who appeared at the last Womad is another whose recent albums have been a delight.
He's a jazz-reggae player and has teamed up with Senegalese musicians (In Search of the Lost Riddum) and taken his jazz group into the roots reggae he fashioned in the 60s (Below the Bassline).
On his new Modern Answers to Old Problems (Telarc/Elite) this master musician and his jazz band - which now includes talking drum - link up with Tony Allen (the percussionist behind Fela Kuti's sprawling and often incendiary 70s Afrobeat) plus guests such as English saxophonist Courtney Pine.
There's plenty of Ranglin's fluid then stuttering jazz guitar, aural references to great African musicians such as Manu Dibango, and sparks of Fela's freewheeling Afro-sax from bandman Denys Baptiste. Big beat Afro-reggae jazz. That can't be bad over summer.
And finally, since all these artists - Stinky Jim and Angus McNaughton, those on the compilation, and Ranglin - draw on roots reggae and dub sensibilities, it's timely to acknowledge a reissue.
The Sylford Walker and Welton Irie collection Lambs Bread International (Blood and Fire/Chant) captures that treble-high, chink-a-chink sound and the committed Rasta-ruler vocal sound of the late 70s which sounds so much more ancient.
On Deuteronomy Walker sounds a lot like Burning Spear, and higher praise ...
Recorded by Glen Brown, this collection of singles, versions and extended treatments is bedrock.
It's part of that substructure, if you will.
<i>Elsewhere:</i> Giving reggae an airing
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