Dub Wicked

Album review

Dub Wicked is an album of dub versions of virtually the entire Dance Wicked CD, released at the same time to take advantage of a period of heightened fascination with the dub mentality. What you get on this Mafia and Fluxy-produced disc is spare bass and drums with vocal phrases and electronica keyboard effects echoing in the background. It won't lead you to any newfound dub nirvana, but isn't a complete throwaway, either.
"Dub Well Happy" throws in a familiar foundation reggae bassline (sounds like they played flip it and reverse it on the source "Happiness" from Dance Wicked), and percussion and a ghostly bass keyboard dominate "Lion Jungle Dub," which is taken at roots tempo, not jungle speed. "Gold Mine" plays games with a peek-a-boo technique, while the rocking "Dreadlocks In Dub" is far more fully fleshed out than the minimal norm of "Reality Dub" that leaves a lot of open space.
Michael Rose really is a major factor here -- his vocal fragments are big pieces in the sonic puzzle, not just occasional adornments to shoot off towards echo and reverb heaven. "Blinding Version" is one of several songs that start off from his singing before the riddims kick in -- it's also one of several with pretty arbitrary fade-outs, most likely to keep all of the songs between the 3:40 and 4:10 mark.
"Mind This Yah Dub" injects more guitar but inverts and masks the thinly veiled variation of the "Paid In Full" bassline on the original from Dance Wicked -- and why obscure a bassline that classic? "Dub Up" is okay with some trombone for novelty and a more classic feel, and the rest are usually good to go when you focus in on them but can slip right on by just as easily if you don't.
So Dub Wicked isn't inconsequential, but it's hardly essential and doesn't supersede its source, either. Dance Wicked was one of the stronger later discs in Rose's solo career, and there's no real reason to pass that over for Dub Wicked unless you're a total dubhead.

© Don Snowden /TiVo