One Dub

Always putting “good music” ahead of sticking into pigeon-holed genre boxes, Interchill are in a sense getting back to their dubby roots, yet opening up more and more to the honesty of where they’re coming from.

One Dub is, praise be, just about as far away from the Entheogeneric, Shpongle-Lite psy-chill plod as it’s possible to get. It’s reggae, more authentic and undiluted than the label’s high watermark Talisman compilation, and more varied.

The vibe is strongly established at the outset. Sugar Minott’s Take It Dub eases things open, setting the mood and making you reach for the volume knob and turn it clockwise.

The quality continues with Tired Of The War from Vibronics feat. Macka B. The production and general ‘musicality’ is top-notch, and Macka B is there just enough to make a point without getting on your nerves (which, let’s be honest, he has an innate ability to do – something he shares, albeit to a thankfully lower degree, than Eek-a-Mouse.)

Gaudi’s Rootikal is among his best output — languid, organic and soulful with the a great balance between dirty and flighty. Liquid Stranger’s Welcome To My Culvert brings in dubstep influences and goes nice and glitchy, before Ashtech’s Just Try takes things in a bouncier, double-dipped direction.

System Error’s Time Bomb (Dub) makes good sparing use of Michael Rose’s vocals; I can’t say the same for the GCorp remix of Luciano’s What We Got To Do. It’s got that 90′s vocal reggae sound to it, so it’s over-produced, and it doesn’t seem to go anywhere significant.

Ragana’s Ah takes what we could amost call a vocal hook and swirls the backing underneath, making for an evolving, fluid track that’s among the top of the One Dub heap. Bush Chemists would be there with Good Sensi Dub 2, were it not for a “woop” sound on the on-beat (or is it the off-beat? Reggae is confusing like that.)

Big Bass Theory’s All Of Us is my personal standout here; the production has a perfect vintage element that’s valvey yet punchy, and it has a sort of silent stream in the centre, a kind of frequency-vacuum which the sounds leave clear. In a word: tasty.

International Observer does well with Binman Dub, although these days I’m not sure bin men really exist given that garbage collection is now done by one bloke driving a big truck with a terrifying arm. Discussions about how track titles are gradually being ”lost on the youth of today” is something we can all look forward to as psyreviews approaches 40.

The ever-wonderful Pushmipulyu (whose album I still recommend to anyone who will listen) make a welcome reprise with a spacey remix of We Make It Work, something that’s firmly got the hand of Michael Dog at the helm. Finally, Manasseh and Praise’s Dub For Dennis winds up on a gentle, mellow vibe.

All in all, decent stuff. It may not appeal to the lovers of the Entheogeneric (I just thought of that term today, so I’m using it again), who want McKenna samples and unfolding clearlight kaleidoscopes; but that’s a good thing.