Dub Flavored Goodness

Some dub and reggae flavored music for these melting days we've been having here lately at my city. I'll start with the classic reggae tune "I chase the devil" from Max Romeo which was later used as a sample on a certain Prodigy song and it comes from the album "The War in Babylon" which is an excellent album from start to finish and you should hunt it down immediatly if you like this sort of music.

Next comes a track from Moderat, which is a collaboration between Modeselektor & Apparat (therefore, moderat, get it?), the song comes from a compilation german magazine De:Bug released and will very probably have an official release by the end of the year (at leats I hope it does, the collaboration sounds very promising based on this track).

Since the past song counts with the collaboration of Paul St. Hilaire, I thought it'd be nice to have something from the legendary "Rhytm & sound" catalog. I'd suggest you to hunt "See Mi Yah remixes" (released in March 2005) which is basically the original instrumental "Rhythm & Sound" track plus 10 vocal versions of the song remixed by well-known electronic artists. I chose the Willi Williams as it's the one I fancy the most but the other vocal renditions and remixes are worth your money (well, as long as you don't mind listening to the same song reversioned eleven times), check the playlist and album info here.

"Ganja smuggling" from Eek-a-mouse's "Wa-do-dem" is a real fun track sung in eek-a-mouse's own vocal style called "sing-jay" and then comes Manu Chao. I admit I'm constantly burnt-out at his music but in all the simplicity and naive optimism he injects on his songs lies precisely its deceptively strong appeal. I've lost count of the amount of times I've been forced to listen to his album "Clandestino" in parties around here. The song I offer to you comes from his last year's album "Siberie M'etait contee" which was recorded as an accompaniment to a book of illustrations done by cartoonist Wozniak and which was only printed in limited amounts. The reggae and latin influences are gone for the most part in this album, as it is a sort of homage to Paris. "Siberie fleuve amor" is the most recognizable song from the release with a xylophone thrown in over the usual percussive driven elements Manu Chao is well known for.

The dub part ends with two leaked goodies from the Easy Star All-stars Radiodread tribute out on November: "No surprises" and "Let Down". The former counts with the participation of the Meditations and the later with the ever hyperactive Toots and his Maytals. I was honestly expecting much less from this tribute, ok computer taken to the ever dangerous kaya territory sounded a really bad idea to me. Turns out these two songs work in their own tedious kind of way. Judge for youself and hope you have a nice weekend. Oh and also sorry for any writing inconsistencies, I'm in a bit of a hurry and I don't have the time to double check the write-up, I'll try and edit the post tomorrow.

Noches.

Max Romeo - I chase the devil
Moderat - let your love grow (feat. Paul St. Hilaire)
Willi Williams - see mi yah
Manu Chao - siberie fleuve amor
Easy Star All Stars - no surprises (feat. The Meditations)
Easy Star All Stars - let down (feat. Toots and the Maytals)

Image: Herve di Rosa