I was sent download links for this album to be listened to either as a six track ep or as a full album and on first listen to the six track soundcloud I have to say I didn't get it at all. It was far too dubstep-py or whatever the totally up to the minute name is for this stuff. Is it grime or something else entirely? Either way I gave it a second listen as a whole album and only then did I start to get the scope of what's on offer here, which is an updating of the 70's Militant reggae, recontextualizing it for today's urban music market.
It must be said that this is an Adrian Sherwood and On-U sound versus Nick Mutant Hifi Coplowe of Prince Fatty Soundclash style album that opens with the digi dub Thunder Rumble that has a good laid back feel to it - if you ignore the lyrics that are anything but laid back and not a little bit scary in places. This is a theme they keep up on Minds.
But Ball Point Bayonet is a truly astonishing song with some real street lyrics of the current state of disintegration on the mean streets over what I think are dubstep sounds. But, as I said, I'm no expert on any reggae that isn't at least 20 years old.
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Screwface City has some great lyrics that use some of my favourite slang going on about Marges (Marge and Butter= Nutter) and fat cats and the implosion of finance over what on a big system would be apocalpytic bass lines thudding through your stomach. At a tangent, Frown Town just sounded pretty cool and laid back.
Dusty Rub has the album's best horn section and is reminiscent of some of Tapper Zukie's horn arrangements. It's a good tune. Ghost in the Machine seems to be an updating of What a Bam Bam and has some really great trumpets on it.
This album is certainly growing on me with each listen I've given it and it certainly needed more than a couple for me to get it, but that's more about me being an old git with a taste for old school reggae from the 60's to the 80's than anything they're doing wrong here.
Ghost Inna Dub online
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