Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
J.S. Bach: The Most Beautiful Cantatas [Box set]
Music: Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) [Exp
McCartney [Original recording remastered] [Import]
Joan Sutherland ~ The Art of the Prima Donna
Lost Somewhere Between The Earth and My Home
Live a L'olympia 2002 [Import]
Amazon.com
Some of the greatest dub albums are jam sessions. Think of Lee "Scratch" Perry's genius Black Ark recordings in the '70s or Adrian Sherwood's early experiments in noise with On-U Sound. New York City punk-soul outfit Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Dub Narcotic's salaciously deep-voiced producer Calvin Johnson had already recorded together at Johnson's Olympia studios for JSBX's 1998 album, Acme. Around the same time, during a two-day session, the artists laid down the nine tracks that comprise this loose, sprawling, eminently lovable studio album. JSBX was the house band, Johnson the mischievous frontman. So what d'ya get? Plenty of echoed harmonica, deep bass drums, James Brown-style squeals, and lyrics that focus mostly on food and being cool ("Banana Meltdown," "Chicken Legs," "Frosty Junction"). "If you come to my town," Calvin sings on the 10-minute funkafied "Fudgy the Whale," "you've got to know all 16 dances." Damn right! --Everett True