Easy Star All-Stars Dub Side Of The Moon CD

Easy Star All Stars: Corey Harris, Frankie Paul, Gary "Nesta" Pine, Dr. Israel, Ranking Joe (vocals); Michael Goldwasser (guitar); Victor Axelrod (melodica, piano, electric piano, Clavinet, synthesizer, percussion); Victor Rice (electric bass, upright bass); Patrick Dougher (drums).
Additional personnel: Jenny Hill (saxophone); Michael Wagner (trombone); Wayne Wiggum (electric bass); Eddie Ocampo, Larry McDonald (percussion); Tamar-Kali (background vocals).
Recorded at Noise NY, Mount Vernon, New York; Mike Stand Killer Studios, Funky Slip Studios and Zion Studios Brooklyn, New York; 401 Studios and Hot Sound, New York, New York. Includes liner notes by Lem Oppenheimer.
The pun in the title gives the album's conceit away: This is, in fact, a dub-influenced take on Pink Floyd's classic DARK SIDE OF THE MOON. But while the idea may be groan-inducing, the results are actually quite appealing. All-Star founders Michael G. and Ticklah recruit a handful of guests, including Corey Harris, the Meditations, and Frankie Paul, among others, to turn Floyd's spacey, art-rock epic into a heavy-lidded roots excursion, incorporating rap, dancehall, IDM, and jungle rhythms. The deeply ingrained familiarity of the original creates a fine palette for the All-Stars' Jamaican coloring, resulting in a surprisingly successful synthesis.
It was one of those really stupid ideas that we can all be grateful someone had the guts to follow through with. Yes, it's a reggae version of the Pink Floyd classic Dark Side of the Moon, every track drastically reworked and presented in the same order as on the original album. And yes, it works far, far better than you'd have any right to expect. The artists vary from the relatively obscure (Kirsty Rock, Dollarman) to the big-time (Corey Harris, Frankie Paul, the Meditations) and the musical styles range from roots to dancehall to jungle. Every track works well, but highlights include a very fine (and uncredited) jungle mix of "On the Run" and the great singer-deejay combo track "Time," on which Corey Harris' chesty baritone singing voice is nicely counterbalanced by Ranking Joe's speed-rap. There are several bonus dub mixes tacked onto the end of the program, and while none of them is revelatory they don't detract from the proceedings, either. At the end you realize that you were wrong to even think this was a dumb idea to begin with -- dub's psychedelic mysticism is a perfectly good match for Pink Floyd's mannered weirdness. Highly recommended. ~ Rick Anderson

Internet

Spin (3/03, pp.194-5) - "...A spacious, magical groove that stretches over voluptuous versions of psychedelic landmarks..."
Entertainment Weekly (2/28/03, p.80) - "...Dub bass lines make this music newly mind expanding and, for the first time, sexy..." - Rating: B+
Uncut (8/03, p.97) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...It still sounds pretty fine as a bunch of rastas take a voluptuous dubbed-up trip around the Floyd's psychedelic masterpiece..."
Dirty Linen (06-07/03, p.86) - "...Floyd's distinctive guitar and keyboard melodies carry through the All-Stars rearrangements, but they're buttressed with deep resonant bass beats and the requisite loping rhythms..."