O'Luge

Producer Bobby O'Luge and co-conspirator Orville "Wyz" Malcolm have created a solid, dub-y record featuring many dreamy and sinewy tracks but they are more suited as background music, rather than dancehall crashers like, say, recent work by Dubmatix. Kick-off track "Istanbul" is a case in point — other than a delectable horn lick there's very little to define an otherwise flat track — and the searing electric guitar solos of "Borderline" aren't enough to hide the fact that the backing track is in need of some interesting ideas. Songs with guest vocalists fair much better, with Citizen Cope adding his sleepy voice over a roots riddim on "Coming Back" and dub poet Peculiar I's offering of "Lisbon" is a nice, heady excursion. "Mexico Dub" is a curious experiment that many listeners will love, as it has Jamaican crooner Ken Boothe singing his old Rodriguez cover, "Silver Words." But something about the loungy rock steady vocals overtop an amphetamine-fuelled drum track makes me long for vintage Boothe.