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Easy Star All-Stars
Radiodread



NY-based collective follow Dub Side Of The Moon with the reggae OK Computer. No smirking please.

Easy Star All-Stars

That the very notion of 'a reggae version' of anything should have become synonymous with novelty - Brighton students devouring the delicious irony of Dread Zeppelin etc. - is a shame. The art of interpretation has been a cornerstone of reggae since the dub pioneers of the '60s (Tubby, Perry) first dabbled in mixing desk alchemy in Jamaica. But po-faced defences aside, no-one embodies Airbag's "deep deep sleep of the innocent" better than Horace Andy, first and arguably finest guest vocalist here of the Easy Star collective, the four-man unit directed by Michael Goldwasser who had previously reimagined The Dark Side Of The Moon. Andy's ghostly high tenor brings the additional promise of spiritual salvation to Thom Yorke's secular, near-death experience ("In an interstellar blast / I am back to save the universe") while the ominous, bass-heavy rumble takes few liberties with the original's blood-thumping-in-the-ears rhythm, with a squall of guitar freakout as a closing flourish. It's hard to top, but Citizen Cope's plaintive Karma Police and Toots And The Maytals' lovely, Thom-approved (see bottom), ska retread of Let Down (Jonny Greenwood as horns) have a good go. Kirsty Rock puts in a valiant performance on Paranoid Android, her pure, glassy voice more than a match for the vocal but ultimately the band struggles to keep up with the song's mood swings. Sgt Pepper's was next in line for a makeover... with more mixed results.

Jenny Bulley

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 20/08/2009

Further Listening

VA – The Big Gundown: Reggae Inspired By Spaghetti Westerns (Sanctuary, 2000)

Easy Star All-Stars – The Dubside Of The Moon (Easy Star Records, 2003)

Augustus Pablo – King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown (Shanachie, 1976)


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