Dreadzone - Sound
6/10
Not so much a new release, but a re-issue on their own Dubwiser label, this classic album from 2001 was probably bought by a mere handful of hardened electro-dub fanatics. However, the band is still touring, and arrives back in Norwich in October, so this is a chance to refresh. What Sound managed to do so seamlessly was combine elements of Jamaican dub-reggae with samples and beats from techno and trip-hop. Unfortunately, by 2001, this fusion was already beginning to sound a little dated and dance music had moved on. The album never charted, despite previous successes with Biological Radio and Second Light, and of course their legendary nights at the Notting Hill Arts Club.
Move forward fourteen years, though, and the old acid-house generation is now buying their CD's from the supermarket, throwing organic barbecues for their new close friends, and treating hyper-acidity with Gaviscon - but what are they playing on their multi-room Sonos systems? Dermot O'Leary compilation albums!
Come on guys! Live a little more dangerously. Treat yourself to Sound, preferably on vinyl, turn the bass up to 10, and show your neighbours that you still have a little of that renegade Caribbean spirit left in your middle-aged bones. This is a resting giant of an album just waiting to be reawakened.
Or perhaps you are one of those Golden Triangulars who still thinks that Notting Hill is a film starring Hugh Grant, and that al fresco dining is incomplete without Ben Howard. Oh well. Can't say I didn't try.
6/10 (or 8/10 after three cans of Stella and a still-pink-in-the middle Bird's Eye beefburger)
