Glitterbeat: Dubs & Versions I (Glitterbeat, 2014)
At first listen I’m usually skeptical when I get a CD’s worth of dubs, remixes and versions. That’s not to say that I dislike dubs, remixes and updated versions. I know for labels it’s a great way to scour the catalog and refashion tracks, all the while promoting the new version and the older catalog recording. But in recent years it seems to be a growing trend for some record executive to badger his beleaguered staff to go through all the archives and closets to come up with say some passable forgotten studio versions of a Beatles’s songs in order to have a new release even though the Beatles disbanded in 1970.
Likewise, how many songs have been made over with computer-generated beats and funked over to hit the dance party scene? The pity is that often these recordings lose the distinctive flavor of the original and that one track often sounds similar to the one in front and the one behind.
Having said that, let me say that the Glitterbeat label’s Glitterbeat: Dubs & Versions I couldn’t be further than the standard remake CD. Edgy, slightly quirky and tantalizingly tempting, Dubs & Versions finds the fiery edge to each track and lets it rip with a newly imagined interpretation. This is heady stuff, where remix junkies get doses of reggae, sampling and electronica wrapped around original tracks.
Using mostly Malian musicians from Glitterbeat’s catalog, Dubs & Versions opens with Dennis Bovell’s searing “Aye Go Mila Dubwize” from Samba Toure’s original “Aye Go Mila.” Fans still get the lanky guitar lines and soulful vocals, but Mr. Bovell kicks up a notch with his particular dubmaster voodoo. Ben Zabo’s “Danna” is saturated and turned into the savvy “Mark Enerstus Meets Ben Zabo Danna Dubwise.”
What makes this such a remarkable set of dubs and versions is the sheer intrigue and curiosity evoked. For example “Schneider TM: Be Ki Don (Cockpit Dub)” from Mr. Toure’s “Be Ki Don” is fabulous and quirky all at the same time with its framed electronica. “Nozinja Tamala (Nozinja Version),” “Hermonious Thelonious Danna (healing-remix)” and “Larry Achiampong Back Talk” are equally good. I have a particular affinity for “Mark Enerstus Meets Ben Zabo Wari Vo Dubwise” and the stinging version of Dirtmusic’s “Smokin’ Bowl” called “Mark Stewart Smokin’ Bowl (Redemption Remix.)”
Glitterbeat: Dubs & Versions I restrings originals just to the breaking point, creating vivid, fierce standouts of tracks that were already standouts. This is remix-dub- alternative version recording that you can really sink your teeth into.
Purchase Glitterbeat: Dubs & Versions I
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
