Is it important to point out that all the tracks on "Dub from the Secret Vaults" were played and mixed to tremendous effect by a young white guy bivouacking in a Canadian suburb thousands of miles from Jamaica, cradle of dub luminaries completely comfortable creating the kind of raw sounds the island nation had been exporting to the rest of the world for years?
Ryan Moore exerts his mastery of vintage recording equipment, further enhanced by his own bass and drum work, with such skill and sensitivity to the sound of each composition that the album as a whole plays like a mellow driven symphony highlighting almost 20 years of previously unheard tracks.
I’m struck by the fact that Ryan only gave us 14 nuggets to savor. The amount of dub gold he must have tucked away over the last two decades in his secret laboratory could surely warrant a boxed set, couldn’t it? What did he decide wasn’t worth including? What song got pushed to the side in favor of the stunning "Other Worlds of Dub" that features hard snare and cymbal snaps backing spacey sitar plucking and undulating organ grinds? What tune was pushed aside to present "Lift Off", a teasing number that develops from the beginning with oddly stroked guitar licks leading into what sounds like a mothership hovering close enough to take us wherever Ryan thinks we should go? I’m not complaining, merely speculating at his process of assembling these rare and juicy cuts.
I’m greedy for exactly this kind of material that is steeped in the tradition of one Mad Professor but radiates enough individuality and daring to never sound imitative or redundant. Dub lovers everywhere can unite in their praise of one man’s efforts to release the tasty bits he’s kept to himself for all these years. Please, sir, can I have some more? |