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Echo Dek- Melody Maker ReviewPRIMAL SCREAMECHODEK Creation (9 tks/45 mins) OTHERWISE known as the Adrian Sherwood dub version of Vanishing Point". Now, in most people's hands such an exercise would be mere folly; an exercise in the self-indulgent druggy work-out for a band which is not exactly the most unfamiliar with the notion of the self-indulgent druggy workout. Thankfully the great Sherwood at the controls does what he does best and deconstructs the original - rewriting, redesigning and re-rolling the contents until it comes out of the other end of the mixer in this perfectly formed dub frenzy. So good that it becomes almost incidental as to lust what the original versions were, or even sounded like anyway.
And, for those vinyl lunkies
among us, it not only comes as
a customary CD, but also as a
box set of five seven-inch
singles. Five nice 'n' fat slabs
of black plastic with the middles
duly stamped out and a spider
provided instead. The way
dubs were supposed to be
presented in other words.
Huzzah!
So crank up those Dansettes
and dig the seven-inch because
this is how it goes.
Seven-inch number one
takes the Arabic refrains of
"Living Dub" on a distorted
analogue rumble through
back street bazaars. Vocals
slowed to a haunting drone while
a repeatedly echoed "Good to be
alive" lyric turns the feel bad vibe
on its head. Flip over for -'Duffed
Up" and the ambience gets ever
more sinister as bongs bubble
furiously in a Turkish Kasbah
and a St Louis (Cypher) horn
section blows the devil's own tune.
The second seven-inch slab features
a head-hurting, fiercely nauseating
and mildly disconcerting door bell
which dings its dong throughout
the dubmerged beats of "Ju 87".
Side two (or is that four?) finds
"Revolutionary" tickling the
ivories of a melodica to the
tune of a Sixties fall out victim.
Vinyl offering number three takes
the ambience even darker. "Vanishing
Dub" is backed by "First Name
Unknown". Two bad trip versions
of head-rocking psycho-delia which
grab you by the throat and take you
on a road trip to oblivion. Juggernaut
dub driving up the wrong side of the
toxic highway.
Part four: The great Prince
Far I ghosts his way through
"Wiseblood", a rich taste
of heat-hazed madness.
Sunday afternoons sat on
your apartment steps, ice
cream dribbling over your
legs, the skunk harvest rattling
around your brain. On the other side,
the living gets even more laid-back
as "Last Train" mixes the biggest
reverb known to mankind with
a hypnotic melodica, doing a
return visit with a six pack of
Special Brew in its grasp.
The last seven-incher on the
record player is the one-sided rock
stomper "Dub in Vain". A huge
beat, freebasing a harmonica
as that man Gillespie rocks
out in the back ground
crying "Gimme, gimme,
gimme medication".
No points for guessing
what the original was
called. No points for
guessing what any of them
are. But that's not the point.
On "Echo Dek" Adrian Sherwood
gives the Primals more medication
than they know what to do with.
He opens them up, creates
space and melts more of the
essence of Studio 1 greatness
into the cracks than the
tartan boys have ever
sniffed-at
Not simply a companion
album, but every last inch
of it is a brilliant creation
in its own right.MARTIN JAMES This got a STAR with reads Recommended. Originally appeared in Melody Maker, 18 Oct 1997. Copyright © Melody Maker Back |
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