Drum and Bass strip to the bone
by Sly & Robbie and Howie B

artists:
sly dunbar, robbie shakespear, howie b, gitsy willis, steve marsden, jony rockstar, jeremy shaw.

tracks: 1. superthruster 2. fatigue chic 3. into battle 4. ballistic squeeze 5. drilling for oil 6. high voltage syndrome 7. psionce merge 8. exodub implosion 9. major magic 10. softcore surge 11. zen concrete 12. stripped to the bone

Available on DVD, VHS, CD. The author has only heard the CD.

Discription of a personal experience.

CD out of the cover (personally imported by a dear friend of mine from the US to Amsterdam) and into the player. [ PLAY ].

I must say that the first time around i was a bit disappointed. It sounded like a lot of randomly-grabbed bits and pieces with a beat. A good beat, but where was the coherence? Second time i ejected it and put my ear to A Tribe Called Quest instead.

"That can't be" i thought later that day. I had heard some Sly and Robbie stuff before that i still don't really dig. But this one had been announced with a lot of publicity, so the artists themselves must like it (assuming the artists isn't being bullied by the recordcompany, which i don't think is the case here). So i put the CD back in again and sat down to see my previous opinion about it squashed into bits.

The album is like a story. A very dancable story. Each track (they're all instrumental) is very well arranged, and so are the tracks in relation to each other. Pauses between tracks are perfect and the whole thing makes the album flow from beginning to end. It left me with a strange feeling. Some longing feeling, not necessarily for the music, but for ancient human traditions (that seem to disappear or at least go more and more underground), like indeed storytelling and other communicative stuff that gives room to one's imagination. I might decide not to watch the the DVD or VHS version.

Many tracks have this '70s reggae dancehall feel. But this is obviously the '90s (although Sly and Robbie again sound as if they're ahead of us) and all tracks (maybe "ballastic squeeze" is an exception) have an abstract sound. To my ears this album is old and new at the same time, a rare and special quality found only here and there in artistland.

Howie B is an excellent producer, dj and musician. I already made him a complement on the arranging job he's done. He is not afraid to use over-the-top producing that makes the album quite inaccessable at first. He challanges you to continue listening though, as it is music you haven't heard before. After a little persistance to access the album (and that went for the plastic seal as well), you will find a valueable musical experience.

It doesn't make much sense to describe all the tracks one by one, since it is a story with chapters. The first track makes you enter a fat funky club that slowly turns into a fat 2000 dancehall, not less funky. Along the way you will regognize (if you know Sly and Robbie longer than yesterday) a few riddims they did over the past few decades, but faintly, and in an abstract way. I heard a distant black uhuru, maybe some ini kamoze. Then the story connects to a broader musical perspective and after 6 tracks or so you leave earth (although your feet remain on the ground :)

To me it is an album that puts all daily problems like dealing with an imperfect society into perspective, and helps relief me of everyday struggle. For those who (want to) listen it might have a similar impact.


Arie.


PS: you can go to Palmpictures to see the Sly and Robbie part where you can download some audio from the album. But these bits of audio do not reflect the greatness of the album. Just go to the recordstore and buy it!